"Survival of the fittest" is the catch phrase of evolution by natural selection. While natural selection favors the most fit organisms around, evolutionary biologists have long wondered whether this ...

Natural selection is usually understood in the context of change. When organisms deviate from the norm, they may gain advantages that let their lineages outlast those of their less-adaptable relatives ...

In a recent study, scientists have demonstrated a link between individual variation in risk-taking behavior and survival of animals in changing environments. For more than a century, scientists have ...

Ever since the Natural Selection Tour announced its expansion into skiing, surfing, and mountain biking, rumors have flown about who would be competing. But such is life working as a ski journalist, ...

When most people think about natural selection, they imagine individuals competing with one another: The fastest animal escapes predators, the strongest plant produces more seeds, and the most ...

Introduction. Definition of natural selection ; Relationship to genetic drift and evolution ; Restricted meanings of "natural selection" ; Modes of selection ; Summary -- Philosophical comments.

In natural populations, the mechanisms of evolution do not act in isolation. This is crucially important to conservation geneticists, who grapple with the implications of these evolutionary processes ...

Sometimes, our preference for certitude, our need to define things with conviction, closes us off from possibility.

The common view of natural selection is based solely on the individual: A trait allows an organism to out-compete its rivals and is thus passed down to its offspring. To suggest otherwise can provoke ...