What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the concept that natural processes can cause organisms to evolve over time. This includes the creation of new species and alteration of the appearance of existing ones.

Many examples have been given of this, such as different varieties of stickleback fish that can be found in fresh or salt water and walking stick insect varieties that prefer specific host plants. These mostly reversible trait permutations can't, however, explain fundamental changes in body plans.

Evolution by Natural Selection

Scientists have been fascinated by the evolution of all the living creatures that live on our planet for many centuries. Charles Darwin's natural selection theory is the most well-known explanation. This is because individuals who are better-adapted have more success in reproduction and survival than those who are less well-adapted. Over time, the population of well-adapted individuals becomes larger and eventually develops into an entirely new species.

Natural selection is an ongoing process that involves the interaction of three elements that are inheritance, variation and reproduction. Sexual reproduction and mutation increase genetic diversity in an animal species. Inheritance refers the transmission of a person’s genetic characteristics, which includes recessive and dominant genes to their offspring. Reproduction is the process of generating viable, fertile offspring. This can be accomplished via sexual or asexual methods.

All of these factors have to be in equilibrium to allow natural selection to take place. If, for example an allele of a dominant gene causes an organism reproduce and live longer than the recessive gene allele then the dominant allele will become more prevalent in a group. But if the allele confers an unfavorable survival advantage or decreases fertility, it will disappear from the population. The process is self-reinforcing, meaning that an organism with a beneficial characteristic will survive and reproduce more than one with an inadaptive characteristic. The higher the level of fitness an organism has, measured by its ability reproduce and survive, is the more offspring it will produce. People with good characteristics, like longer necks in giraffes and bright white color patterns in male peacocks are more likely survive and have offspring, so they will make up the majority of the population over time.

Natural selection only affects populations, not individuals. This is a significant distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which states that animals acquire traits by use or inactivity. If a giraffe extends its neck to catch prey, and the neck becomes larger, then its offspring will inherit this characteristic. The differences in neck length between generations will persist until the neck of the giraffe becomes too long to not breed with other giraffes.

Evolution through Genetic Drift

Genetic drift occurs when the alleles of one gene are distributed randomly within a population. At some point, one will attain fixation (become so widespread that it is unable to be removed by natural selection) and other alleles fall to lower frequency. In the extreme it can lead to dominance of a single allele. Other alleles have been essentially eliminated and heterozygosity has been reduced to zero. In a small population, this could lead to the complete elimination of the recessive allele. This is known as a bottleneck effect and it is typical of the kind of evolutionary process that occurs when a large amount of people migrate to form a new group.

A phenotypic bottleneck could happen when the survivors of a catastrophe, such as an epidemic or a mass hunt, are confined in a limited area. The remaining individuals will be mostly homozygous for the dominant allele meaning that they all share the same phenotype, and thus have the same fitness characteristics. This could be caused by earthquakes, war or even plagues. The genetically distinct population, if it is left susceptible to genetic drift.

Walsh Lewens, Walsh, and Ariew define drift as a departure from expected values due to differences in fitness. They provide the famous case of twins who are both genetically identical and share the same phenotype. However, one is struck by lightning and dies, but the other lives to reproduce.

This kind of drift can play a very important role in the evolution of an organism. However, it's not the only way to progress. Natural selection is the main alternative, in which mutations and migrations maintain the phenotypic diversity of a population.

Stephens argues there is a huge distinction between treating drift as an actual cause or force, and treating other causes such as migration and selection as forces and causes. He claims that a causal process explanation of drift permits us to differentiate it from these other forces, and this distinction is essential. He further argues that drift has a direction: that is, it tends to eliminate heterozygosity, and that it also has a specific magnitude that is determined by the size of the population.

Evolution by Lamarckism

Biology students in high school are often introduced to Jean-Baptiste Lemarck's (1744-1829) work. His theory of evolution, commonly referred to as "Lamarckism which means that simple organisms evolve into more complex organisms adopting traits that are a product of the use and abuse of an organism. Lamarckism can be illustrated by a giraffe extending its neck to reach higher levels of leaves in the trees. This would result in giraffes passing on their longer necks to their offspring, who would then grow even taller.

Lamarck was a French zoologist and, in his inaugural lecture for his course on invertebrate zoology held at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on the 17th May 1802, he introduced an original idea that fundamentally challenged the previous understanding of organic transformation. According Lamarck, living organisms evolved from inanimate materials through a series gradual steps. Lamarck wasn't the first to suggest this but he was thought of as the first to give the subject a comprehensive and general overview.

The most popular story is that Lamarckism was an opponent to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution through natural selection and that the two theories battled out in the 19th century. Darwinism ultimately prevailed which led to what biologists refer to as the Modern Synthesis. The theory denies that acquired characteristics are passed down from generation to generation and instead argues that organisms evolve through the influence of environment factors, including Natural Selection.

Lamarck and his contemporaries endorsed the idea that acquired characters could be passed down to the next generation. However, this notion was never a major part of any of their evolutionary theories. This is partly due to the fact that it was never tested scientifically.

It's been more than 200 years since Lamarck was born and in the age genomics, there is a large amount of evidence that supports the heritability of acquired characteristics. This is referred to as "neo Lamarckism", or more commonly epigenetic inheritance. This is a variant that is just as valid as the popular Neodarwinian model.

Evolution by the process of adaptation

One of the most commonly-held misconceptions about evolution is its being driven by a fight for survival. This view misrepresents natural selection and ignores the other forces that are driving evolution. The struggle for survival is more effectively described as a struggle to survive within a particular environment, which can include not just other organisms, but also the physical environment itself.

To understand how evolution operates it is important to consider what adaptation is. The term "adaptation" refers to any characteristic that allows living organisms to live in its environment and reproduce. 에볼루션 게이밍 could be a physical structure such as feathers or fur. It could also be a trait of behavior that allows you to move towards shade during the heat, or moving out to avoid the cold at night.

The survival of an organism depends on its ability to extract energy from the surrounding environment and interact with other living organisms and their physical surroundings. The organism needs to have the right genes to create offspring, and must be able to access enough food and other resources. The organism should also be able to reproduce at a rate that is optimal for its niche.

These factors, along with mutation and gene flow result in an alteration in the percentage of alleles (different types of a gene) in a population's gene pool. As time passes, this shift in allele frequencies can result in the emergence of new traits and ultimately new species.


Many of the characteristics we admire in animals and plants are adaptations, such as lung or gills for removing oxygen from the air, fur or feathers to provide insulation, long legs for running away from predators, and camouflage for hiding. However, a proper understanding of adaptation requires paying attention to the distinction between behavioral and physiological traits.

Physiological adaptations, like thick fur or gills, are physical characteristics, whereas behavioral adaptations, such as the tendency to search for companions or to retreat to shade in hot weather, aren't. It is important to keep in mind that lack of planning does not cause an adaptation. Failure to consider the implications of a choice, even if it appears to be rational, may cause it to be unadaptive.