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Phenotypic plasticity refers to some of the changes in an organism's behavior, morphology and physiology in response to a unique environment. [1] [2] Fundamental to the way in which organisms cope with environmental variation, phenotypic plasticity encompasses all types of environmentally induced changes (e.g. morphological, physiological, behavioural, phenological) that may or may not be ...
The concept is closely tied to multiple biological mechanisms. The effects of eco-evo-devo can be a result of developmental plasticity, the result of symbiotic relationships or epigenetically inherited. The overlap between developmental plasticity and symbioses rooted in evolutionary concepts defines ecological evolutionary developmental biology.
Evolution occurs continuously both in time and space, so that ecotypes or forms may qualify as distinct species in a few generations. [22] Begon, Townsend, and Harper use an illuminating analogy on this: ... the origin of a species, whether allopatric or sympatric, is a process, not an event. For the formation of a new species, like the boiling ...
Adaptation is not always a simple matter where the ideal phenotype evolves for a given environment. An organism must be viable at all stages of its development and at all stages of its evolution. This places constraints on the evolution of development, behaviour, and structure of organisms.
The Baldwin effect compared to Lamarck's theory of evolution, Darwinian evolution, and Waddington's genetic assimilation. All the theories offer explanations of how organisms respond to a changed environment with adaptive inherited change. In evolutionary biology, the Baldwin effect describes an effect of learned behaviour on evolution.
It is the organism's physical properties that directly determine its chances of survival and reproductive output, but the inheritance of physical properties is dependent on the inheritance of genes. Therefore, understanding the theory of evolution via natural selection requires understanding the genotype–phenotype distinction. The genes ...
In 1985, biologist Robert G. B. Reid authored Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis, which argued that the modern synthesis with its emphasis on natural selection is an incomplete picture of evolution, and emergent evolution can explain the origin of genetic variation.
Waddington called the effect he had seen "genetic assimilation". His explanation was that it was caused by a process he called "canalization".He compared embryonic development to a ball rolling down a slope in what he called an epigenetic landscape, where each point on the landscape is a possible state of the organism (involving many variables).