7.3 Artificial Selection

• How do humans affect genetic diversity within a population?

  • Through artificial selection, humans select desirable traits and breed individuals with the desired traits
  • This may result in phenotypes that would not otherwise exist in nature
  • Can lead to more or less genetic diversity
• Convergent evolution


  A process by which similar environmental conditions select for similar traits in different populations, or different species over time
• How convergent evolution occurs

  1. Similar selective pressures result in similar phenotypic adaptations

  2. Environmental changes can lead to similar evolutionary changes across different populations or species due to similar selective pressures
• Convergent evolution examples

  • Streamlined bodies in aquatic vertebrates like fish and mammals
• Humans affect diversity within a population by breeding plants and animals, and selecting for desirable traits
• Convergent evolution is a process by which similar environmental conditions select for similar traits in different populations or different species over time