What is the role of population size, gene frequencies, and genetic drift in evolution of new species?
Explain. The smaller the population, the more rapid the change in gene frequencies; thus, the more rapidly the population can change its genetic character. For a new species to evolve, it must go through a period in which a small population is isolated, allowing genetic drift as well as propagation of new genes favored by natural selection. The new genes can then propagate throughout the population. As the population grows, the new genes become “fixed” as drift becomes less likely. When the population becomes so different as to prevent natural interbreeding with other descendents of the original population, there is a new species. • If natural selection means “survival of the fittest,” than how can one “fittest” species evolve into more than one? How can more than one be “the fittest”? Explain. Natural selection is always relative; a particular group produces more offspring than another group. But natural selection depends on the particular environmental conditions. If two groups split
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