In environments, organisms can adjust behavior {adaptation, organism}| to survive and reproduce.
survival
To reproduce, species members must survive to sexual maturity. They must get food, avoid predators, fight disease, and maintain temperature, in a struggle for survival.
adaptation
To optimize environment use, species can use different foods, decrease development time, increase temperature range, increase air or water pressure range, use protective coloration, use warning coloration, use mimicry, and use other species.
varieties
Genes alleles vary proportions and interactions. Alleles remain available to survive slow, catastrophic, or cyclic environmental changes and to use different environment niches.
Species evolve to new varieties that can occupy surrounding environments {adaptive radiation} {radiation, adaptive}.
As structures shift, functions and adaptations can be different {functional shift} {cooptation}. Small structure shifts are not necessarily adaptive.
Organisms tend to evolve to larger size {Cope's rule} {Cope rule}. Larger organisms typically compete better for sex and food and have better protection from predators. Evolution tends to build larger and more complex organisms.
Animal tops and bottoms can have different colors {countershading}|. For example, bottoms can be light to match sky, and tops dark to match sea.
Organisms can alter their surroundings {environment} [Bateson, 1916] [Cosmides et al., 1992].
Species can pass through trait-development stages {grade, development}.
Negative feedback keeps involuntary muscle actions and chemical levels within normal ranges {homeostasis, animal}.
Longer lives {longevity}| are adaptive in stable environments, harsh and unpredictable environments, low progeny-survival-rate conditions, and low-fertility conditions.
Species can imitate other species {mimicry}|.
Organism features {preadaptation} can find new uses in new environments.
Species can change color for disguise {protective coloration}|.
Species can change skin or coat color and pattern to scare predators {warning coloration}|.
Evolution can make similar structures and functions in different species {convergent evolution}, to adapt to similar environments.
Evolution can make new species varieties, then subspecies, and then new species {divergent evolution}, to adapt to environment niches.
Species try to stay in environment niches {habitat tracking}.
Different habitats cause differences among people {polygenesis}.
New species arise in geographic isolation {allopatry}.
New species do not arise in same location {sympatry}.
Reproductive fitness {fitness} is adaptations that maximize offspring that live to make offspring. Fitness maximizes number of genes passed to offspring, which pass those genes to offspring.
Replicate number and adaptability depend on how well environment and species members interact {differential fitness}.
Gene alleles can affect other-allele fitness {epistasis} {epistasy} {epistatic coupling}. Gene mutation can affect mutation expression at other loci.
Ecosystems can maintain stable alleles in stable species {evolutionary stable strategy}. Evolutionary stable strategies apply game-theory Nash equilibria to ecosystems. If allele change reduces other-species fitness, it reduces species fitness.
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Date Modified: 2022.0225