Heredity is the process of passing of traits from one generation to the next generation. Now, this process would not lead to any interesting results (and in turn, the astonishing variety of life on earth), if this process was 100% accurate or faithful. So, even though traits are transferred from parents to their off-springs, the traits are usually marginally altered.
This gives rise to off-springs who are like their parents but with very minor changes. These changes could either be a) beneficial b) harmful (deleterious) or c) neutral.
Harmful changes cause the organism to perish before it can pass on these changes to the next generation. Sometimes a trait that existed in the earlier might become deleterious due to a change in the environment and thus, undergo the process of elimination from the population.
Beneficial changes help the organism to adapt better to its surroundings and live longer and have more off-springs such that these changes are spread to more and more organisms in the population and are eventually get fixed.
A series of such changes in a subsection of a population eventually lead to a new species which is nothing like the older generation. This process of “fixing” or beneficial changes and removal of deleterious traits from a population is called evolution.
Interestingly, the changes that seem the most inconsequential, the neutral changes, are responsible for the bulk of evolution. Neutral changes along with geographical isolation lead to a process called genetic drift, which is considered by many to be the strongest driving force of evolution.
1.8K viewsView upvotes
7
Related Questions (More Answers Below)
Answer:
Living things respond to the environment.
Explanation:
John's body is responding the the cold environment by shivering.
"Bottleneck effect" is the evolutionary mechanism among the choices given in the question that this effect. The correct option among all the options that are given in the question is the second option or option "B". I hope that this is the answer that you were looking for and it has come to your great help.
Answer:
The hypothesis that states that viruses originated from more complex cells is called the regressive hypothesis.
Explanation:
The regressive hypothesis -also called <u>degenerative hypothesis</u>- raises the possibility that viruses originally were cells that behaved as symbionts or parasites of other cells, and this condition of dependence could have originated the disappearance of genes, becoming structures formed by nucleic acid inside a viral capsid (virus).
Some evidence gathered to support this theory suggests that some bacteria, such as rickettsia, need to parasitize a cell in order to replicate, just as viruses do.
Learn more:
Virus characteristics brainly.com/question/3122852