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Many aspects of an animal or plant can be correctly called adaptations, though there are always some features whose function remains in doubt. By using the term adaptation for the evolutionary process , and adaptive trait for the bodily part or function (the product), one may distinguish the two different senses of the word.
Adaptationism is an approach to studying the evolution of form and function. It attempts to frame the existence and persistence of traits, assuming that each of them arose independently and improved the reproductive success of the organism's ancestors.
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
The basic mechanisms of evolution are applied directly or indirectly to come up with novel designs or solve problems that are difficult to solve otherwise. The research generated in these applied fields, contribute towards progress, especially from work on evolution in computer science and engineering fields such as mechanical engineering. [6]
Humans determine which animal or plant will reproduce and which of the offspring will survive; thus, they determine which genes will be passed on to future generations. The process of artificial selection has had a significant impact on the evolution of domestic animals. For example, people have produced different types of dogs by controlled ...
However, it is possible that cultural evolution could actually increase genetic adaptation. Cultural evolution has vastly increased communication and contact between different populations, and this provides much greater opportunities for genetic admixture between the different populations (Hawks et al. 2007).
There are two different ways in which adaptation can arise in experimental evolution. One is via an individual organism gaining a novel beneficial mutation . [ 2 ] The other is from allele frequency change in standing genetic variation already present in a population of organisms. [ 2 ]
Evolution can be extremely rapid, as shown in the creation of domesticated animals and plants in a very short geological space of time, spanning only a few tens of thousands of years. Maize ( Zea mays ), for instance, was created in Mexico in only a few thousand years, starting about 7,000 to 12,000 years ago. [ 88 ]