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Introgression is an important source of genetic variation in natural populations and may contribute to adaptation and even adaptive radiation. [7] It can occur across hybrid zones due to chance, selection or hybrid zone movement. [8]
Eukaryote hybrid genomes result from interspecific hybridization, where closely related species mate and produce offspring with admixed genomes.The advent of large-scale genomic sequencing has shown that hybridization is common, and that it may represent an important source of novel variation.
Rapid sympatric speciation can take place through polyploidy, such as by doubling of chromosome number; the result is progeny which are immediately reproductively isolated from the parent population. New species can also be created through hybridization, followed by reproductive isolation, if the hybrid is favoured by natural selection.
There is some evidence of adaptive evolution in genes linked to brain development, but some of these genes are often associated with diseases, e.g. microcephaly (see Table 2). However, there is a particular interest in the search for adaptive evolution in brain genes, despite the ethical issues surrounding such research.
Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection. Historically, adaptation has been described from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Aristotle .
A mule is a sterile hybrid of a male donkey and a female horse.Mules are smaller than horses but stronger than donkeys, making them useful as pack animals.. In biology, a hybrid is the offspring resulting from combining the qualities of two organisms of different varieties, subspecies, species or genera through sexual reproduction.
Also called functionalism. The Darwinian view that many or most physiological and behavioral traits of organisms are adaptations that have evolved for specific functions or for specific reasons (as opposed to being byproducts of the evolution of other traits, consequences of biological constraints, or the result of random variation). adaptive radiation The simultaneous or near-simultaneous ...
Today, adaptationism is associated with the "reverse engineering" approach. Richard Dawkins noted in The Blind Watchmaker that evolution, an impersonal process, produces organisms that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose. [12] This observation justifies looking for the function of traits observed in biological organisms.