Selective Breeding and Natural Selection
Natural Selection and Selective Breeding are the only two ways an animal species can exist. Natural selection is the process nature uses to strain out the animals who are flawed in some way to survive and the animals better equipped for survival of the species in the wild. Selective breeding is a process used by humans to make an animal to a certain job, so they would breed for a hunting animal, a butcher animal, or simply a companion. These are the ways animal can originate, evolve and survive.
The process of selective breeding starts with a human selecting a pair of animals that have a desired trait wanted in the offspring.Natural selection works by nature selecting what animals are better at surviving
Biological evolution is a change in the characteristics of living organisms over generations (Scott, 2017). A basic mechanism of evolution, the genetic drift, and mutation is natural selection. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, natural selection is a process in nature in which only the organisms best adapted to their environmental surroundings have a higher chance of surviving and transmitting their genetic characters in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated. There has been many experimental research projects that relate to the topic of natural selection and evolution.
What makes us who we are? Does the answer lie in our genes, our environment, or in the way we are raised? For years, there has been an on-going debate between nature and nurture. T.H. White, author of The Once and Future King, explores the debate through many of the book’s characters. The issue clearly appears in the relationship of Queen Morgause and her sons, the Orkney brothers. The debate caused people to pick a side, to pick nature over nurture, or nurture over nature. However, it does not have to be one or the other. Nature and nurture work together to determine who we are.
Anyone with even a moderate background in science has heard of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution. Since the publishing of his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection in 1859, Darwin’s ideas have been debated by everyone from scientists to theologians to ordinary lay-people. Today, though there is still severe opposition, evolution is regarded as fact by most of the scientific community and Darwin’s book remains one of the most influential ever written.
Natural and sexual selection are not random processes. If there is no difference between the individuals within the species there would be no selection. Sexual selection is related to mating, it acts on individual’s ability to obtain or successfully copulate with a partner. The idea of sexual selection was introduced by Charles Darwin in 1871; he revealed that there are organisms with traits which are not explained by the concept natural selection, for example the tail of a male peacock. His found two main ways in which sexual selection works, these are intra-sexual competition and inter-sexual selection. Intra sexual competition happens within species, usually between males. They compete against each other to be chosen as a mate by a member of opposite sex. Inter-sexual selection is choosing a mate among the members of opposite sex, usually done by females.
Darwin has two theories on the key principles of theory of evolution. One is the natural selection, a species that attains characteristics that are adapted to their environments (Darwin, Charles). The other one is survival of the fittest, which is when an individual best adapts to their environment survive to reproduce, and their genes are passed to later generat...
Evolution is a on going process and the evolution is made up of many different processes. It allows species to become what they are, how they act, and what they will become. It also allows species to be able to survive. It produces new and different species through ancestral populations of organisms and moves them to new population. Both natural selection and genetic drift decrease genetic variation. If they were the only mechanisms of evolution, populations would eventually become homogeneous and further evolution would be impossible. There are, however, mechanisms that replace variation depleted by selection and drift (Colby).
Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains the general laws by which any given species transforms into other varieties and species. Darwin extends the application of his theory to the entire hierarchy of classification and states that all forms of life have descended from one incredibly remote ancestor. The process of natural selection entails the divergence of character of specific varieties and the subsequent classification of once-related living forms as distinct entities on one or many levels of classification. The process occurs as a species varies slightly over the course of numerous generations. Through inheritance, natural selection preserves each variation that proves advantageous to that species in its present circumstances of living, which include its interaction with closely related species in the “struggle for existence” (Darwin 62).
In order for natural selection to happen, the species has to have genetic variation. Genetic variation happens because of mutations and recombination of genes. Other processes that contribute are gene flow and genetic This process is seen mostly in agriculture. It is because of artificial selection that we have the domesticated plants and livestock that we eat. In the case of canines, they were originally bred to become working and hunting dogs in agriculture.
With the studies that Charles Darwin obtained he published his first work, “The Origin of Species.” In this book he explained how for millions of years animals, and plants have evolved to better help their existence. Darwin reasoned that these living things had gradually changed over time to help themselves. The changes that he found seemed to have been during the process of reproduction. The traits which would help them survive became a dominant trait, while the weaker traits became recessive. A good example of what Darwin was trying to explain is shown in giraffes. Long-necked giraffes could reach the food on the trees, while the short-necked giraffes couldn’t. Since long necks helped the giraffes eat, short-necked giraffes died off from hunger. Because of this long-necks became a dominant trait in giraffes. This is what Charles Darwin would later call natural selection.
So first, to describe the role of natural selection in speciation process, a simple definition of what natural selection is must be given. Natural selection is the process where organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and are able to reproduce. Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution. If you have variation, differential reproduction, and heredity, you will have evolution by natural selection as an outcome. In Darwin’s theory of natural selection, an example is given of giraffes. In this example of the giraffes, Darwin suggests that variation was a result of preexisting genetic differences among the giraffes. While this other biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, believed that evolution occurred by the inheritance of acquired characteristics. He believed that the giraffe ancestor lengthened its neck by stretching to reach tree leaves, and then passed the change to the offspring. However, Darwin believed that some giraffes were just born with longer necks due to genetic diff...
Selective breeding A breed is a particular set of domestic animals or plants having uniform look and behavior, that differentiate it from other animals or plants. Domestication is the process whereby a population of living organisms is changed at the genetic level, through generations of selective breeding, to accentuate traits that ultimately benefit humans. The deliberate breeding of animals and other species to obtain required features by human beings is called selective breeding. It includes breeding methods such as inbreeding, line breeding, etc. The animals that are produced are tamed, and the breeding is usually done by an expert breeder.
Technology has a significant influence across the world, as it has become a fast growing field. Modern biotechnology has been in the major forefront of this influence. From the discovery of DNA to the cloning of various animals, the study of genetic engineering has changed the way society views life. However, does genetic engineering have the capacity to influence the world to its best abilities? Products, which are genetically engineered, may cause severe negative effects on our society. This industry, carrying the potential of leading us toward the unnatural selection of humans to possibly environmental disasters will put humankind in peril. Society, along with humankind, will be in jeopardy since to genetic engineering has the potential of being disastrous.
On the other hand, artificial selection is the exact opposite of natural selection. Artificial selection occurs when humans manually modify or manipulate certain desirable trait(s) that will appear in the offspring (Artificial Selection). Charles Darwin formed this term when he did selective breeding of animals such as pigeons, cat...
Selective breeding is a way for humans to nurture desirable traits in plants and animals, but it is much older and less scientific than transgenesis. In selective breeding, two members of the same species are paired as breeding partners in order to encourage desirable characteristics in the offspring. For example, cows that have been observed producing large volumes of milk may be bred to pass that trait on to ensuing generations. This process helps ensure an increase in the milk yield of future cows. In New Zealand, new apple cultivars are developed through selective breeding. This is the same technique that humans have used for thousands of years to breed plants and animals with desirable characteristics.
Natural selection is based on the concept “survival of the fittest” where the most favourable individual best suited in the environment survive and pass on their genes for the next generation. Those individual who are less suited to the environment will die.