When organisms have to adapt to their environment through physical alterations, how is that passed down to their offspring in the long run?
In: 0
You’re thinking about this in the reverse order. Individuals don’t “adapt” in real time and “imprint” on genes. You also want to think about populations, not individuals, when you’re thinking about evolution.
In any given population there is a very wide variety of traits, and you can easily imagine how some of those traits are beneficial in specific environments, whereas the same treats maybe detrimental in others (e. g. polar bears fat & fur in tropics). Overtime, the beneficial traits spread throughout a population just by successfully reproducing more offspring (“the traits are “selected” for, which is a confusing term of art), whereas the maladaptive traits will decrease (“be selected against”.)
There are some more complex evolutionary ideas (epigenetics), where the environment can pass on traits, but only for a generation or two, but that doesn’t affect the DNA itself, just how the DNA is expressed.
Latest Answers