Question

A major point of understanding natural selection is that not all organisms in a
population get to reproduce. Consider the term fitness as used in biology. How does
this term relate to naturalselection

Answer 1

In biology, the term "fitness" refers to an organism's ability to survive and reproduce in its environment. Fitness is often measured by the number of offspring that an organism can produce that survive to reproductive age. This concept is central to natural selection, as natural selection acts on the variation in fitness among individuals within a population.

In the context of natural selection, individuals with higher fitness are more likely to pass on their genes to the next generation, while those with lower fitness are less likely to reproduce successfully. Over time, this can lead to changes in the population's genetic makeup, as advantageous traits that increase fitness become more common, while disadvantageous traits may diminish.

Essentially, fitness provides a quantitative measure of how well-suited an organism is to its environment, and it is a key driver of the evolutionary process through natural selection. Thus, the interplay between fitness and natural selection helps explain how populations adapt to their environments over generations.