### causal process:

Natural selection
* Some natural selections affect phenotypes
  - cause evolution
  - drive evolution
  - induce growth
  - lead to evolution
  - require reproduction
* acts at the level of the organism
  - differently on related species living in different habitats
  - directly on a. the phenotype
* acts on A. an organism s phenotype
  - behavioral traits
* acts on differences between individuals within populations
  - individuals while differential reproduction acts on populations
* acts on individuals, but it affects populations over time
  - while evolution acts over generations in populations
  - phenotypes that are controlled by genes
  - the variations of the phenotype within the population
  - only upon existing traits
  - upon a creature within a specific niche in nature
  - within a generation, evolution change between generations
* adjusts each to counter the evolutionary advances made by the other.
* affects all
  - the distripution of phenotypes in three ways
* allows organisms to adapt to their environment, but within the bounds of the kind.
* are evolutionary theories.
* can ONLY act on heritable traits
  - be operative only if more offspring are born than survive
  - cause adaptation or also cause a population to remain constant
  - lead to the adaptive trait showing up in more and more of a population
  - occur in any population that has heritable fitness differences
* can occur with decades, over just a few generations
  - or without environmental change
* can only act on available phenotypic variations within the population
  - traits that increase fitness
  - cause evolution if the different alleles produce different phenotypes
  - choose among existing variation in a population
  - modify existing traits of an organism
  - select that which is already present in an animal's genetic code
  - work on existing variation within a population
  - produce adaptations
  - purge the mutations from the population
  - result in evolutionary convergence under several different circumstances
* can result in the maintenance of polymorphism in a population
  - replacement of one genotype by another
  - weed some existing traits out of a population
* can, in principle, explain all known adaptations.
* causal process.
* cause of genetic variation in a population
  - the most significant genetic changes in a population
* causes adaptive traits to be increasingly represented in succeeding generations
  - allele frequencies to change
  - predictable changes in phenotypic variation
* change in the characteristics of living things over time.
* choice as to which one better uses the environment to make offspring.
* comes from differences in survival and reproduction.
* conservative force.
* creates change within a species through competition, or the struggle for life.
* decreases beak length in soapberry bug populations.
* deletes genetic information from the population.
* describes how populations, over time, adapt to their environments.
* destroys evolutionary change.
* determines evolutionary fitness with characteristics related to survival.
* different issue from how the morphological change occurs.
* does act on individuals
  - explain how organisms adapt to minor changes in their environment
  - shape human behavior, they say
* drives organismal change through time including the origin of new species.
* driving force for evolution and genetic variation provides the raw material.
* ensures that a particular trait be advantageous to an animal.
* explains a tremendous amount of biology
  - design in nature
* favors only the fittest variations from the phenotypes that are available
  - primate behaviors that enhance survival and reproduction
  - the average value of a trait, and selects against either extreme
* favors traits improving reproductive success
  - the survival and reproduction of individuals
  - in males that increase their success at mating
  - that maximize reproductive success
* favours optimal traits
  - replicators that prosper in their environment
* filters out organisms as they cross the fuzzy line from the present to the future.
* fixes one allele but drift determines which allele is fixed and which one is lost.
* force that causes evolution.
* has much to say about such things as third eyes.
* has nothing to do with energy efficiency
  - optimizing any physical criterion
  - to take an animal as it finds it the good with the bad
* have effects
  - intentions
* increases genetic differentiation among populations
  - the value of genetic information
* influences the increasing or decreasing prevalence of traits in a population.
* introduces a systematic bias in allele frequency changes.
* involves a consideration of survival rates, fitness, and selection coefficients.
* is actually a process of killing off
  - all about favouring some variants over others
* is an action
  - agent, acting through coincidences and working in mutated genes
  - algorithm
  - evolutionary theory, but there are others
  - opportunistic process
  - at work in microbes as they constantly try to thwart human pesticides
* is based on differential reproductive success
  - three basic facts about plants and animals in nature
  - total randomness of process
  - basically a specialization process
  - believed to be one of the most influential factors in animal evolution
  - critical to animal behavior because it generally is linked to ultimate causes
  - differences in survival among individuals
* is differential reproduction by individuals of different genotypes
  - reproduction, organism perpetuation
  - survival and reproduction of different phenotypes in a population
  - easy to study - it occurs over fairly short periods of time
  - essentially a bookkeeping process
  - for larger birds
  - goal directed in the short term
  - how species evolve by adapting to their environment
  - important, but there are several mechanisms driving evolution
  - in fact so powerful that it can work in machines as well
  - irrelevant to, or negligible in context of, macroevolutionary change
  - one concept that explains the change
* is one of the cornerstones of modern biology
  - four processes that result in evolution
  - main factors, resulting in changes in gene proportions
  - powerless when there is no function to select
  - process by which species becomes modified over time
  - seen in action in the development of antibiotic resistance in microorganisms
  - simply the consequence of heritable variation in traits that affect fitness
  - supposed to be nature's sorting mechanism
  - the controlling factor in the evolution of large populations r
* is the driving force behind evolution
  - of evolution
* is the main driving force of the evolution
  - mechanism of evolution
  - source of microevolution
  - way that evolution works
  - mechanism by which the process of evolution occurs
* is the mechanism of change
* is the mechanism that chooses one variation over another
  - produces adaptations
* is the only evolutionary mechanism
  - known explanation for adaptation
  - mechanism known to produce complex adaptations in nature
* is the primary mechanism by which evolution takes place
  - driving evolutionary change
  - principle mechanism driving adaptive radiation
* is the process by which evolution works
  - speciation occurs
  - progenitor, the ancestor of the other selective processes
  - tendency to survive and reproduce due to having the right characteristics
  - very specific to the environment it is occurring in
* key foundation of evolution.
* kind of combinatorial optimiation process.
* leads the content of preferences to reflect biological fitness.
* leads to extinction
  - organisms that are well suited for survival in particular environments
  - the evolution of new traits
* maintains favorable alleles regardless of whether they are dominant or recessive.
* major agent in natural selection.
* makes it necessary that animals and nature fit perfectly.
* mechanism by which species evolve
  - for generating an exceedingly high degree of improbability
* occurs based on the variation that is present in a species at any time
  - in opposition to evolution
  - over many generations and longer time periods
  - through interactions between individual organisms and their environments
* occurs when genotypes differ in average fitness
  - the viability of an allele is tested in real life
  - there are differences in among members of a popu- lation
  - with or without environmental catastrophes
  - within species
  - without a conscious plan or purpose
* operates by changing one little part and later another.
* operates on individuals, but it is the populations that evolve
  - causing adaptations in populations
  - over thousands of generations
* operates to eliminate or retain such organisms which have mutated
  - produce adaptation to the environment
* operating on genetic variation leads to adaptation and diversification.
* picks the way that maximizes individual fitness.
* play important roles
* plays a key role in both adaptations and exaptations
  - role in the origin of new species
* prefers one lot of information over another, leading to adaptation.
* prepares organisms for future changes in the environment.
* process that acts on variable traits among individuals
  - among species
  - goes in exactly the opposite direction required for evolution
  - is directly opposed to the direction of evolution
  - results in evolution
  - which slows down degeneration
* produces adaptations that enhance survivorship, reproduction, or both.
* promotes the survival of individuals best able to survive and reproduce.
* reduces the less vigorous young.
* refers to differences in survival and reproduction.
* reflects an advantage for a particular characteristic in a particular environment
  - transient adaptation to a prevailing environmental condition
* rely on ideas.
* scientific law much as gravity is.
* stabilizing force.
* stops the evolution of male attractiveness.
* take places.
* takes an organism as a whole.
* tends to discourage change, rather than bring about greater change
  - erode genetic variability
  - inhibit major evolutionary change
  - produce individuals that are well adapted to their environment
  - reduce variation in gene pools
* vital contributor to evolution and the emergence of new species.
* working on groups of close genetic relatives is called kin selection.
* works here because there are already functional traits
  - in a negative fashion to actually limit diversity
* works on an individual
  - changes that have already occurred
  - preexisting variation in a population
  - the variability