Micro-evolution
How it works
How we know it has and still is occurring
examples
- changes within one species
- 5 ways to change a gene pool: natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, and non-random mating
- natural selection - those best suited to environment will survive and be able to pass on their genes to next generation
- mutation - change in dNA of an organism and can be passed on to future generations and change gene pool
- 3 types: good, bad, and neutral
- genetic drift - change in gene pool results in random events
- gene flow - transfer genes from one population to another
- non-random mating - organisms rarely mate randomly
- 3 types: harems, assortative mating, and sexual selection
- 3 possible types of selection: Stabilized, directional, and disruptive
How we know it has and still is occurring
- populations are made of many variations of genes
- those who contribute the most will have their genes represent the most in next generation
- genes that are most represented depends on who was fittest in previous generation
- if no evolution is occurring in a population, then variations should remain same from generation to generation
- however if we see changes from generation to generation, we will then know that the population must be evolving
examples
- dogs
- When dogs with different characteristics breed, an entirely different dog may result
- A red dog with long legs breeding with a white dog with short legs may produce a dog with medium size legs and red spots
- If the red spots help the dog survive better than solid red dogs or solid white dogs, the dogs with the red spots will propagate more often than the red or white dogs
- Reasoning - creationists can be considered to lack faith, which is why they felt the need to go out and prove their assertions rather than rely on faith