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What is Free Evolution?

Free evolution is the idea that natural processes can lead to the development of organisms over time. This includes the evolution of new species and transformation of the appearance of existing ones.

This has been proven by many examples such as the stickleback fish species that can be found in saltwater or fresh water and walking stick insect varieties that have a preference for particular host plants. These are mostly reversible traits, however, cannot explain fundamental changes in body plans.

Evolution by Natural Selection

Scientists have been fascinated by the evolution of all living organisms that inhabit our planet for centuries. The best-established explanation is Charles Darwin's natural selection, which is triggered when more well-adapted individuals live longer and reproduce more successfully than those that are less well adapted. As time passes, a group of well adapted individuals grows and eventually becomes a new species.

Natural selection is an ongoing process that involves the interaction of three elements that are inheritance, variation and reproduction. Sexual reproduction and mutations increase the genetic diversity of a species. Inheritance is the term used to describe the transmission of a person’s genetic traits, which include both dominant and recessive genes, to their offspring. Reproduction is the production of fertile, viable offspring, which includes both sexual and asexual methods.

All of these variables must be in harmony to allow natural selection to take place. If, for instance the dominant gene allele makes an organism reproduce and survive more than the recessive allele The dominant allele becomes more prevalent in a population. If the allele confers a negative survival advantage or lowers the fertility of the population, it will be eliminated. The process is self reinforcing meaning that the organism with an adaptive trait will live and reproduce much more than one with a maladaptive characteristic. The higher the level of fitness an organism has as measured by its capacity to reproduce and endure, is the higher number of offspring it can produce. People with desirable traits, like having a longer neck in giraffes, or bright white patterns of color in male peacocks, are more likely to be able to survive and create offspring, so they will eventually make up the majority of the population in the future.

Natural selection is an aspect of populations and not on individuals. This is a major distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution, which states that animals acquire traits due to usage or inaction. If a giraffe expands its neck in order to catch prey and its neck gets longer, then its offspring will inherit this trait. The length difference between generations will persist until the neck of the giraffe becomes too long to no longer breed with other giraffes.

Evolution through Genetic Drift

In genetic drift, alleles within a gene can be at different frequencies in a group due to random events. At some point, only one of them will be fixed (become common enough to no longer be eliminated through natural selection), and the other alleles will decrease in frequency. In extreme cases it can lead to one allele dominance. The other alleles have been essentially eliminated and heterozygosity has been reduced to a minimum. In a small group it could result in the complete elimination of recessive gene. This is called a bottleneck effect, and it is typical of the kind of evolutionary process when a large number of people migrate to form a new group.

A phenotypic bottleneck can also occur when the survivors of a disaster, such as an epidemic or mass hunt, are confined in a limited area. The survivors will carry an allele that is dominant and will share the same phenotype. This can be caused by war, earthquakes or even a plague. The genetically distinct population, if left vulnerable to genetic drift.

Walsh, Lewens, and Ariew utilize Lewens, Walsh and Ariew employ a "purely outcome-oriented" definition of drift as any deviation from the expected values for variations in fitness. They give a famous instance of twins who are genetically identical and have identical phenotypes and yet one is struck by lightning and dies, whereas the other lives and reproduces.

This kind of drift could play a very important part in the evolution of an organism. It is not the only method for evolution. The main alternative is a process called natural selection, in which the phenotypic diversity of the population is maintained through mutation and migration.

Stephens argues that there is a major difference between treating drift as a force, or an underlying cause, and treating other causes of evolution like mutation, selection and migration as forces or causes. He argues that a causal-process explanation of drift lets us separate it from other forces and that this distinction is essential. He also argues that drift is both an orientation, i.e., it tends to reduce heterozygosity. It also has a size that is determined by the size of the population.

Evolution by Lamarckism

Biology students in high school are often introduced to Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's (1744-1829) work. His theory of evolution is commonly referred to as "Lamarckism" and it states that simple organisms grow into more complex organisms by the inheritance of traits which result from an organism's natural activities, use and disuse. Lamarckism can be illustrated by the giraffe's neck being extended to reach higher levels of leaves in the trees. This process would result in giraffes passing on their longer necks to offspring, who then get taller.

Lamarck Lamarck, a French zoologist, presented an innovative idea in his 17 May 1802 opening lecture at the Museum of Natural History of Paris. He challenged previous thinking on organic transformation. According to Lamarck, living creatures evolved from inanimate material by a series of gradual steps. Lamarck was not the first to suggest that this might be the case, but the general consensus is that he was the one giving the subject its first broad and comprehensive treatment.

The most popular story is that Charles Darwin's theory on evolution by natural selection and Lamarckism were rivals in the 19th century. Darwinism eventually prevailed, leading to what biologists call the Modern Synthesis. The Modern Synthesis theory denies the possibility that acquired traits can be inherited, and instead suggests that organisms evolve through the selective action of environmental factors, including natural selection.


Lamarck and his contemporaries endorsed the idea that acquired characters could be passed down to the next generation. However, this idea was never a major part of any of their evolutionary theories. This is largely due to the fact that it was never validated scientifically.

It's been more than 200 year since Lamarck's birth and in the field of genomics, there is a growing body of evidence that supports the heritability-acquired characteristics. This is referred to as "neo Lamarckism", or more commonly epigenetic inheritance. It is a form of evolution that is just as valid as the more well-known Neo-Darwinian theory.

Evolution by adaptation

One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is its being driven by a struggle for survival. This view is a misrepresentation of natural selection and ignores the other forces that drive evolution. The struggle for survival is more effectively described as a struggle to survive within a particular environment, which could include not just other organisms, but as well the physical environment.

Understanding how adaptation works is essential to understand evolution. The term "adaptation" refers to any characteristic that allows a living thing to live in its environment and reproduce. It could be a physiological structure such as fur or feathers, or a behavioral trait, such as moving to the shade during hot weather or coming out at night to avoid the cold.

The survival of an organism depends on its ability to obtain energy from the surrounding environment and interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism needs to have the right genes to create offspring, and it should be able to locate sufficient food and other resources. The organism must be able to reproduce at a rate that is optimal for its particular niche.

These factors, along with mutation and gene flow can result in a change in the proportion of alleles (different varieties of a particular gene) in a population's gene pool. Over time, this change in allele frequencies can result in the development of new traits and eventually new species.

Many of the characteristics we admire in animals and plants are adaptations. For instance lung or gills that draw oxygen from air, fur and feathers as insulation and long legs to get away from predators, and camouflage to hide. However, a complete understanding of adaptation requires a keen eye to the distinction between behavioral and physiological characteristics.

Physiological adaptations like the thick fur or gills are physical traits, whereas behavioral adaptations, such as the tendency to seek out friends or to move to shade in hot weather, are not. Additionally ???? ??? is important to understand that lack of planning is not a reason to make something an adaptation. In fact, a failure to think about the implications of a decision can render it unadaptable, despite the fact that it might appear reasonable or even essential.

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