15 Best Documentaries On Free Evolution

What is Free Evolution?

무료에볼루션  is the concept that the natural processes of living organisms can lead to their development over time. This includes the appearance and growth of new species.

Many examples have been given of this, such as different varieties of stickleback fish that can be found in fresh or salt water and walking stick insect varieties that favor particular host plants. These reversible traits are not able to explain fundamental changes to basic body plans.

Evolution through Natural Selection

The development of the myriad living creatures on Earth is an enigma that has intrigued scientists for many centuries. Charles Darwin's natural selectivity is the most well-known explanation. This process occurs when those who are better adapted survive and reproduce more than those who are less well-adapted. As time passes, the number of well-adapted individuals grows and eventually creates an entirely new species.

Natural selection is a cyclical process that involves the interaction of three factors: variation, inheritance and reproduction. Sexual reproduction and mutation increase the genetic diversity of a species. Inheritance is the passing of a person's genetic characteristics to the offspring of that person which includes both recessive and dominant alleles. Reproduction is the process of producing fertile, viable offspring which includes both asexual and sexual methods.

All of these elements must be in harmony to allow natural selection to take place. If, for example an allele of a dominant gene causes an organism reproduce and last longer than the recessive gene allele, then the dominant allele will become more prevalent in a group. If the allele confers a negative survival advantage or reduces the fertility of the population, it will be eliminated. This process is self-reinforcing, which means that the organism with an adaptive characteristic will live and reproduce much more than one with a maladaptive characteristic. The higher the level of fitness an organism has which is measured by its ability to reproduce and endure, is the higher number of offspring it produces. People with desirable traits, like having a longer neck in giraffes or bright white colors 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 over time.

Natural selection is a factor in populations and not on individuals. This is a significant distinction from the Lamarckian theory of evolution which holds that animals acquire traits either through the use or absence of use. For example, if a Giraffe's neck grows longer due to stretching to reach prey its offspring will inherit a longer neck. The difference in neck size between generations will increase until the giraffe becomes unable to breed with other giraffes.

Evolution through Genetic Drift

In genetic drift, alleles within a gene can be at different frequencies within a population by chance events. In the end, only one will be fixed (become common enough to no more be eliminated through natural selection) and the other alleles decrease in frequency. This could lead to a dominant allele in the extreme. The other alleles are eliminated, and heterozygosity is reduced to zero. In a small number of people it could lead to the total elimination of the recessive allele. This is known as the bottleneck effect and is typical of the evolution process that occurs when an enormous number of individuals move to form a group.

A phenotypic  bottleneck may also occur when the survivors of a catastrophe like an outbreak or mass hunt incident are concentrated in a small area. The survivors will carry a dominant allele and thus will share the same phenotype. This could be caused by war, earthquakes or even a plague. Regardless of the cause the genetically distinct population that remains is susceptible to genetic drift.

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

This type of drift can play a crucial role in the evolution of an organism. This isn't the only method for evolution. The main alternative is a process called natural selection, where phenotypic variation in a population is maintained by mutation and migration.

Stephens claims that there is a major difference between treating drift as a force or an underlying cause, and treating other causes of evolution, such as mutation, selection, and migration as forces or causes. He claims that a causal process explanation of drift allows us to distinguish it from other forces, and this distinction is essential. He further argues that drift is a directional force: that is it tends to reduce heterozygosity, and that it also has a magnitude, that is determined by the size of population.

Evolution through Lamarckism

When students in high school take biology classes, they are frequently introduced to the work of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829). His theory of evolution is commonly called "Lamarckism" and it states that simple organisms grow into more complex organisms via the inheritance of traits that result from the organism's natural actions usage, use and disuse. Lamarckism can be demonstrated by a giraffe extending its neck to reach higher levels of leaves in the trees. This could cause the longer necks of giraffes to be passed onto their offspring who would grow taller.

Lamarck was a French zoologist and, in his lecture to begin his course on invertebrate zoology at the Museum of Natural History in Paris on the 17th May 1802, he introduced a groundbreaking concept that radically challenged the previous understanding of organic transformation. According to Lamarck, living things evolved from inanimate materials through a series gradual steps. Lamarck was not the only one to suggest that this could be the case, but he is widely seen as having given the subject his first comprehensive and comprehensive treatment.

The popular narrative is that Lamarckism became a rival to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and both theories battled it out in the 19th century. Darwinism ultimately prevailed and led to what biologists refer to as the Modern Synthesis. This theory denies acquired characteristics can be passed down through generations and instead argues that organisms evolve through the selective influence of environmental factors, such as Natural Selection.

While Lamarck believed in the concept of inheritance through acquired characters and his contemporaries also spoke of this idea however, it was not a central element in any of their evolutionary theories. This is due in part to the fact that it was never validated scientifically.

It has been more than 200 years since the birth of Lamarck and in the field of age genomics there is a growing body of evidence that supports the heritability acquired characteristics. This is also referred to as "neo Lamarckism", or more commonly epigenetic inheritance. It is a version of evolution that is as valid as the more well-known neo-Darwinian model.

Evolution through adaptation

One of the most common misconceptions about evolution is that it is driven by a sort of struggle to survive. This view is inaccurate and ignores other forces driving evolution. The struggle for existence is better described as a struggle to survive in a particular environment. This could include not just other organisms as well as the physical environment itself.

Understanding how adaptation works is essential to comprehend evolution. It refers to a specific feature that allows an organism to live and reproduce within its environment. It can be a physiological structure such as fur or feathers, or a behavioral trait like moving to the shade during the heat or leaving at night to avoid the cold.

An organism's survival depends on its ability to obtain energy from the surrounding environment and interact with other organisms and their physical environments. The organism must possess the right genes to produce offspring, and be able to find sufficient food and resources. The organism must be able to reproduce itself at an amount that is appropriate for its particular niche.

These factors, in conjunction with gene flow and mutations can cause changes in the proportion of different alleles in the population's gene pool. This shift in the frequency of alleles could lead to the development of new traits and eventually new species as time passes.

Many of the characteristics we admire about animals and plants are adaptations, like lungs or gills to extract oxygen from the air, feathers or fur for insulation long legs to run away from predators and camouflage to hide. However, a proper understanding of adaptation requires a keen eye to the distinction between physiological and behavioral characteristics.

Physiological traits like thick fur and gills are physical characteristics. Behavioral adaptations are not like the tendency of animals to seek companionship or retreat into shade in hot weather. It is also important to keep in mind that the absence of planning doesn't make an adaptation. A failure to consider the implications of a choice even if it appears to be rational, could make it inflexible.