Natural Selection
Adaptation
• Organisms adapt so that they can survive in places where they live.
• For example, elephants live in grasslands, savannahs, safaris.
• Five key adaptations of elephants include their trunks, large ears, tusks, thick
skin, and specialized feet. These features help them survive in various
environments, from foraging and cooling down to defence and movement.
1. Trunk:
• Elephants' trunks are incredibly versatile, used for drinking water, grabbing
food, dusting themselves, and even communication. The trunk is a powerful,
sensitive appendage containing over 150,000 muscle units.
2. Large Ears:
• Elephants' large ears help them regulate body temperature. They are filled
with blood vessels, and flapping them can help release excess heat,
especially in hot environments.
3. Tusks:
• Elephant tusks, which are elongated incisors, are used for a variety of
purposes, including digging for food and water, stripping bark from trees,
fighting for dominance, and marking territory.
4. Thick Skin:
• Their thick skin helps protect them from the sun and insects. While they do
have some hair for protection, their skin also helps retain moisture.
5. Specialized Feet:
• Elephants have large, padded feet with a cushion-like sole that helps
distribute their weight and allows them to walk silently, even at their large
size.
• There is inherited variation in the adaptations of a species. For example,
Individual Asian elephants’ tusk length, height, trunk length, and foot size. This
variation is caused by each elephants’ slightly different genes, which they
have inherited from their parents.
Bird Adaptations
• Birds in Galapagos Islands have beaks that are adapted for the food they eat.
Natural Selection
• In any environment, the individuals that have the best adaptive features are
the ones most likely to survive and reproduce
• This results in natural selection:
• Individuals in a species show a range of variation caused by differences in
genes
• When organisms reproduce, they produce more offspring than the
environment is able to support
• This leads to competition for food and other resources which results in
a ‘struggle for survival’
• Individuals with characteristics most suited to the environment have a
higher chance of survival and more chances to reproduce
• Therefore, these characteristics are passed to their offspring at a higher
rate than those with characteristics less suited to survival
• This means that in the next generation, there will be a greater number of
individuals with the better adapted variations in characteristics
• This theory of natural selection was put forward by Charles Darwin and
became known as ‘survival of the fittest’
Natural selection illustrated by snail shell colour
• Within the population of snails there is variation in shell colour
• Normal varieties of shell colours in this snail species is black or grey (as
evidenced by the first picture)
• Chance mutations lead to a small number of snails / one snail having a white
shell
• This ‘small number’ is shown in the second diagram where there are less
white shelled snails than black or grey shelled snails
• The white shelled snail(s) survive longer
• This is the ‘survival of the fittest’, a term used to explain why some organisms
succeed in the competitive struggle for survival against other members of their
population
• The reason the white shelled snail(s) survive longer is because they are
better camouflaged
• This means that they are less likely to be seen by predators and eaten
• As they survive longer, they get more opportunities to reproduce
• And so, the allele for white shells is passed onto offspring more frequently
than the alleles for black or grey shells
• Over generations, this is repeated until the majority of snails in the
population have white shells.
Evolution
• A change in something over time is called evolution.
• In biology, evolution means the gradual change in the characteristics of a
population of organisms.
• According to Charles Darwin, evolution is caused by natural selection.
• Based on his study on the finches, all of the different species of finches had
evolved from a population of one species which arrived in Galapagos islands
over 2 million years ago.
• The conditions on the different islands in the Galapagos were different –
habitats and food resources.
• These different environments led to natural selection.
Natural Selection and Genetics
• The reason why there is inherited variation in a characteristic between
members of the same species is because of genes.
• If a change happens in a cell that makes gametes, that change may be
inherited by the offspring.
• That changed gene could cause a slight difference in a characteristic.
• If this change helps the offspring to survive better than other individuals, that
gene is more likely to be passed down to the next generation.
The Peppered Moth – Natural Selection in Action
