10 Healthy Free Evolution Habits

What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the concept that natural processes can cause organisms to evolve over time. This includes the creation of new species and the alteration of the appearance of existing ones.

This has been demonstrated by many examples such as the stickleback fish species that can thrive in fresh or saltwater and walking stick insect species that prefer specific host plants. These typically reversible traits cannot explain fundamental changes to the basic body plan.

Evolution through Natural Selection

Scientists have been fascinated by the development of all the living organisms that inhabit our planet for many centuries. Charles Darwin's natural selection is the most well-known explanation. This happens when people who are more well-adapted are able to reproduce faster and longer than those who are less well-adapted. As time passes, the number of individuals who are well-adapted grows and eventually develops into an entirely new species.

Natural selection is a process that is cyclical and involves the interaction of 3 factors: variation, reproduction and inheritance. Variation is caused by mutation and sexual reproduction both of which enhance the genetic diversity within the species. Inheritance is the passing of a person's genetic characteristics to his or her offspring, which includes both dominant and recessive alleles. Reproduction is the process of producing fertile, viable offspring, which includes both asexual and sexual methods.

Natural selection can only occur when all of these factors are in equilibrium. If, for instance an allele of a dominant gene causes an organism reproduce and last longer than the recessive allele, then the dominant allele will become more common in a population. However, if the gene confers an unfavorable survival advantage or decreases fertility, it will disappear from the population. The process is self-reinforcing, which means that an organism with a beneficial trait will survive and reproduce more than one with a maladaptive characteristic. The more offspring an organism produces, the greater its fitness which is measured by its ability to reproduce itself and survive. People with good characteristics, like a longer neck in giraffes, or bright white color patterns in male peacocks, are more likely to survive and produce offspring, which means they will become the majority of the population over time.

Natural selection only acts on populations, not individual organisms. This is an important distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which claims that animals acquire characteristics by use or inactivity. For example, if a animal's neck is lengthened by stretching to reach for prey its offspring will inherit a larger neck. The difference in neck size between generations will increase until the giraffe is unable to breed with other giraffes.

Evolution through Genetic Drift

In genetic drift, alleles within a gene can attain different frequencies in a group due to random events. Eventually, one of them will attain fixation (become so common that it can no longer be eliminated through natural selection) and the other alleles drop to lower frequencies. This can lead to an allele that is dominant in the extreme. The other alleles are essentially eliminated, and heterozygosity decreases to zero. In a small group, this could result in the complete elimination of the recessive gene. This scenario is called a bottleneck effect, and it is typical of evolutionary process that takes place when a lot of individuals move to form a new population.

A phenotypic  bottleneck may also occur when the survivors of a catastrophe such as an outbreak or mass hunt event are confined to an area of a limited size. The survivors will share an allele that is dominant and will have the same phenotype. This situation might be caused by a conflict, earthquake or even a cholera outbreak. The genetically distinct population, if left, could be susceptible to genetic drift.

Walsh Lewens, Lewens, and Ariew utilize Lewens, Walsh, and Ariew use a "purely outcome-oriented" definition of drift as any departure from expected values for differences in fitness. They provide a well-known example of twins that are genetically identical and have identical phenotypes but one is struck by lightning and dies, while the other lives and reproduces.

This type of drift is very important in the evolution of a species. However, it is not the only method to develop. Natural selection is the main alternative, where mutations and migration keep the phenotypic diversity of the population.

Stephens argues there is a huge difference between treating drift like an agent or cause and treating other causes such as selection mutation and migration as forces and causes. He argues that a causal-process model of drift allows us to separate it from other forces and this distinction is essential. He further argues that drift has a direction, that is, it tends to eliminate heterozygosity. It also has a size, that is determined by population size.

Evolution through Lamarckism

When high school students study biology, they are often introduced to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829). His theory of evolution, often called "Lamarckism is based on the idea that simple organisms evolve into more complex organisms by inheriting characteristics that result from the organism's use and misuse. Lamarckism is usually illustrated with a picture of a giraffe extending its neck to reach higher up in the trees. This could cause the necks of giraffes that are longer to be passed to their offspring, who would then become taller.

Lamarck was a French Zoologist. In his inaugural lecture for his course on invertebrate zoology held at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on the 17th of May in 1802, he introduced an original idea that fundamentally challenged the conventional wisdom about organic transformation. According to Lamarck, living things evolved from inanimate matter through a series gradual steps. Lamarck was not the first to suggest that this could be the case, but the general consensus is that he was the one giving the subject his first comprehensive and thorough treatment.

The most popular story is that Charles Darwin's theory on evolution by natural selection and Lamarckism were rivals in the 19th century. Darwinism eventually prevailed and led to the creation of what biologists today refer to as the Modern Synthesis. The theory argues that acquired traits are passed down from generation to generation and instead argues that organisms evolve through the selective action of environment elements, like Natural Selection.

Although  Get Source  believed in the concept of inheritance by acquired characters, and his contemporaries also offered a few words about this idea but it was not a central element in any of their theories about evolution. This is largely due to the fact that it was never tested scientifically.

It has been more than 200 years since the birth of Lamarck and in the field of genomics, there is a growing evidence-based body of evidence to support the heritability-acquired characteristics. This is also referred to as "neo Lamarckism", or more commonly epigenetic inheritance. It is a form of evolution that is as relevant as the more popular neo-Darwinian model.

Evolution through adaptation

One of the most widespread misconceptions about evolution is that it is driven by a type of struggle for survival. In fact, this view misrepresents natural selection and ignores the other forces that are driving evolution. The fight for survival can be more accurately described as a struggle to survive within a specific environment, which could include not just other organisms, but also the physical environment itself.

To understand how evolution functions it is important to consider what adaptation is. It refers to a specific feature that allows an organism to live and reproduce within its environment. It can be a physiological structure, such as fur or feathers or a behavior like moving to the shade during hot weather or coming out at night to avoid cold.

The capacity of a living thing to extract energy from its surroundings and interact with other organisms, as well as their physical environment, is crucial to its survival. The organism should possess the right genes to produce offspring, and be able to find sufficient food and resources. In addition, the organism should be capable of reproducing itself in a way that is optimally within its environmental niche.

These factors, in conjunction with gene flow and mutations, can lead to an alteration in the ratio of different alleles within the gene pool of a population. This shift in the frequency of alleles could lead to the development of new traits, and eventually, new species in the course of time.

A lot of the traits we admire in animals and plants are adaptations. For example lung or gills that extract oxygen from the air feathers and fur as insulation long legs to run away from predators and camouflage for hiding. To comprehend adaptation it is crucial to discern between physiological and behavioral characteristics.

Physiological adaptations like thick fur or gills are physical characteristics, whereas behavioral adaptations, like the tendency to search for companions or to move to shade in hot weather, are not. It is also important to keep in mind that insufficient planning does not result in an adaptation. In fact, failing to consider the consequences of a decision can render it unadaptive despite the fact that it may appear to be sensible or even necessary.