Anyone outside of UT Martin wishing to use these notes or to contact me for additional information should first read the information obtained by clicking here . The goals of this lecture are to give a general overview of evolution and introduce natural selection, one of the main ways evolution occurs. A population refers to all individuals of the same species living in a defined area at the same time.
Microevolution occurs through several mechanisms.
The first of these that was discovered, and the form which is best known, is natural selection. It was discovered independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. Natural selection is evolution that occurs because individuals with some traits survive and reproduce better than do individuals with other traits. As a result, those traits that result in high survival and reproduction are passed from generation to generation, through reproduction, at a higher rate than are other traits. These traits become increasingly more and more common in populations.