Hypotheses explain why sexual reproduction persists despite its costs, including the Red Queen and mutation clearance.
Sex has a two-fold cost: only half the offspring produce young. Benefits: new genotypes in changing environments, faster spread of beneficial alleles (Fisher-Muller) and purging of harmful mutations (Muller's ratchet is avoided). Bdelloid rotifers are an ancient asexual group exception.
Hypotheses explain why sexual reproduction persists despite its costs, including the Red Queen and mutation clearance.
Evolution of Sex is one of the 53 topics in Evolution. It is rated Advanced, so it suits learners who want specialist depth. Related topics in this area include Red Queen Hypothesis, Evolutionary Trade-offs, Species Concept.
Lizards and fish have species that reproduce parthenogenetically.
Work through the Beginner topics in Evolution first, such as Evolution, Natural Selection, Charles Darwin, then return to Evolution of Sex. Advanced topics assume the Intermediate vocabulary.
The closest topics to Evolution of Sex are Red Queen Hypothesis, Evolutionary Trade-offs, Species Concept, Neutral Theory. Comparing them side by side is a good way to see how the ideas connect.
Read the summary and the in-depth section, then use the quick check on the interactive lesson for Evolution of Sex. To practise the whole of Evolution, use the Evolution quiz.
Evolution of Sex: Hypotheses explain why sexual reproduction persists despite its costs, including the Red Queen and mutation clearance. Red Queen Hypothesis: Species must constantly evolve just to keep pace with coevolving enemies such as parasites. Read both side by side and note what each one explains.
First, read the summary and write the definition in your own words. Second, read the in-depth section and note any example. Third, compare it with Red Queen Hypothesis and explain the difference aloud. Finally, take the Evolution quiz and come back to this page for any question you miss.
Species must constantly evolve just to keep pace with coevolving enemies such as parasites.
🦎 EvolutionImproving one trait often costs another, constraining which adaptations can evolve.
🦎 EvolutionThe biological species concept defines a species as a group of interbreeding natural populations reproductively isolated from others.
🦎 EvolutionProposes that most molecular variation results from drift of selectively neutral mutations rather than selection.
🦎 Evolution