Mechanisms of Evolution
Processes that drive evolutionary change.
The processes that change the genetic makeup of populations: natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow and sexual selection, with the bottleneck and founder effects, speciation, adaptive radiation, convergent evolution, coevolution, artificial selection, punctuated equilibrium and non-random mating.
Use it when
- You need to distinguish processes that change allele frequencies from patterns of evolution.
- You are explaining how populations adapt or diverge.
Watch out for
- Some entries are processes that change allele frequencies (drift, selection) and others are patterns or outcomes (convergent evolution, adaptive radiation).
- Evolution has no goal; adaptation is a result of selection in particular environments.
The data
14 rows
| Mechanism | Description |
|---|---|
| Natural Selection | Differential survival and reproduction due to heritable traits. |
| Mutation | Changes in DNA sequence that introduce new variation. |
| Genetic Drift | Random changes in allele frequencies in small populations. |
| Gene Flow | Transfer of alleles between populations. |
| Sexual Selection | Selection based on success in attracting mates. |
| Bottleneck Effect | A sharp reduction in population size that leaves a smaller, less diverse gene pool. |
| Founder Effect | Reduced genetic variation when a small group establishes a new population. |
| Non-Random Mating | Choosing mates by traits or proximity, which changes genotype frequencies without changing allele frequencies directly. |
| Artificial Selection | Humans choosing which individuals reproduce, as in crops and domestic animals. |
| Speciation | Formation of new species when populations become reproductively isolated. |
| Adaptive Radiation | Rapid diversification of a lineage into many forms that occupy different niches. |
| Convergent Evolution | Unrelated lineages evolving similar traits under similar selective pressures. |
| Coevolution | Reciprocal evolutionary change in interacting species, such as flowers and their pollinators. |
| Punctuated Equilibrium | A pattern in which species remain stable for long periods and change rapidly in short intervals. |
Fields
The shape of this dataset, read from the data itself: every column, its type and a real value. Agents can use this to plan a query without fetching the whole document.
| Section | Field | Type | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| data | mechanism | string | Natural Selection |
| data | description | string | Differential survival and reproduction due to h… |
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