Question

What are the five causes of evolution?

Answer 1

Evolution is defined as the change in heritable characteristics of biological populations that takes place over successive generations. Evolution is the cause which has given rise to biodiversity at the level of biological organization.

Complete answer-
Evolution is known to occur due to five major causes which are- gene flow, genetic drift, mutation, natural selection and recombination. Gene flow is defined as the exchange of genes between populations and between species. The genetic differentiation between populations causes gene flow between populations which can introduce new traits or alleles in a population resulting in the appearance of a new species. Genetic drift is defined as the random fluctuations of allele frequencies within a population from one generation to the next. When the selective forces are weak or absent then the allele frequencies either drift upward or downward that results in the elimination of some alleles from the population leading to two divergent populations with different sets of alleles. Mutation is another cause of evolution that is known to occur randomly without any trigger. Mutations can be many types of insertions, deletions, inversions, etc. which ultimately lead to development of a new population with new genetic makeup. Natural selection may be caused due to physical factors as well as biological factors. It results in dominance of the species which is most suited to new conditions. Recombination is defined as the exchange of genetic materials between two individuals that results in offspring having entirely new characters and thus is another cause of evolution.

Note-
Evolution is important for the survival of all species on Earth. Since the environmental as well as the biological conditions of the species is constantly changing, the individual species should also change to cope up otherwise it might lead to their extinction.