Evolutionary Beginnings

     I was aware that evolution occurred on the two scales of macro and micro but I was not very knowledgeable about how to exactly distinguish the two and more so just vaguely knew that there were two different types. Microevolution and macroevolution go hand in hand with one another. Macroevolution cannot occur unless microevolution has occurred over and over for a very long time and microevolution requires to have a term to describe when its evolutions have surpassed a single species and have evolved into something completely different.

 

    Fitness is the quantitatively measured concept of the ability to survive and reproduce. If an animal has higher fitness than another, that means that the higher fitness animal has a higher likelihood to reproduce and pass on its genes. This concept can be misunderstood because of its conceptual similarity to what is evolution. When you research fitness it is easy for blurred lines to appear between the high fitness phenotype observed and the ratio of genotypes of a higher fitness individual to a lower one.

    For the Evolution Talk episode that we watched, the craziest thing that struck me was that Darwin was not the one that coined “Survival of the Fittest”. I think sometimes people tend to group a lot of things about a subject to the top dog associated with them like in this instance of Darwin. Similarly, Thomas Edison getting accredited with so many inventions around the time period that were not his. Speaking of top dog, it was very interesting to hear about the survival of the fittest isn’t about being top dog per se but about being good enough to pass on genes.