Environmental factors like predators or climate that favour certain heritable variants over others.
Selection pressures may be abiotic (temperature, drought) or biotic (predators, disease, competition). Their intensity differs and can change quickly. Without variation, selection cannot act.
Environmental change alters which traits are favoured.
Environmental factors like predators or climate that favour certain heritable variants over others.
Variation and Selection Pressure is one of the 53 topics in Evolution. It is rated Beginner, so it suits learners who are starting out in biology. Related topics in this area include Natural Selection, Analogous Structures, Adaptation.
Pesticide use selects for resistant insects within a few generations.
Variation and Selection Pressure is a Beginner topic, so no earlier topic is required. Other Beginner topics in Evolution that pair well with it include Evolution, Natural Selection, Charles Darwin.
The closest topics to Variation and Selection Pressure are Natural Selection, Analogous Structures, Adaptation, Convergent Evolution. 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 Variation and Selection Pressure. To practise the whole of Evolution, use the Evolution quiz.
Variation and Selection Pressure: Environmental factors like predators or climate that favour certain heritable variants over others. Natural Selection: Individuals with traits better suited to their environment survive and reproduce more, passing those traits on. 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 Natural Selection and explain the difference aloud. Finally, take the Evolution quiz and come back to this page for any question you miss.
Individuals with traits better suited to their environment survive and reproduce more, passing those traits on.
🦎 EvolutionSimilar-looking features with different origins that evolved independently for similar function, like bird and insect wings.
🦎 EvolutionA heritable trait that improves an organism's survival and reproduction in its environment.
🦎 EvolutionUnrelated lineages evolve similar traits because they face similar selective pressures.
🦎 Evolution