What is meant by "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection"?

Question

What is meant by "survival of the fittest" and "natural selection"?

Answer 1

"Survival of the fittest" isn't a scientific term; it's a metaphor for "natural selection."  

Natural selection is the evolutionary process by which favorable traits that are heritable become more common in successive generations of a population of reproducing organisms, and unfavorable traits that are heritable become less common.

Answer 2

Natural selection - "Differential success in the reproduction of different phenotypes resulting from the interaction of organisms with their environment.  Evolution occurs when natural selection causes changes in relative frequencies of alleles in the gene pool." (1)

Survival of the fittest - "Survival of the fittest is a phrase which is a shorthand for a concept relating to competition for survival or predominance. Originally applied by Herbert Spencer in his Principles of Biology of 1864, Spencer drew parallels to his ideas of economics with Charles Darwin's theories of evolution by what Darwin termed natural selection.

The phrase is a metaphor, not a scientific description; and it is not generally used by biologists, who almost exclusively prefer to use the phrase "natural selection"." (2)

Answer 3

the weak get pushed aside by the stronger to get at food ,and can run fast enough or fight to survive attacks ,

the weak get caught and killed by preditors or disease so only the fittest survive

this is especially so when times in Nature are hard ,such as draught .

natural selection refers to breeding

and again the strongest and those in the best conditions get to breed with the females and ensure that the specie continues using the best specimens and the best examlpes of that specie is the result ,

this is the natural selection that makes sure that the offspring are always of the best quality

Answer 4

"Survival of the fittest" is NOT a good catch phrase for natural selection - in fact it's very bad because it leads to misconceptions about how natural selection works.

Obviously survival alone is not enough, you have to reproduce as well, for your DNA to persist.  

Also, "fittest" is misleading  because in modern society this tends to be associated with "strongest."

In nature, this is not always the case.  Living things that are naturally selected for may be the smallest, or smartest, or fastest, or best camouflaged, etc., and not necessarily the strongest.

Natural selection is best summed up by saying "survival AND reproduction of those best suited to their environment."

Answer 5

"Survival of the fittest" is a rough translation of a principle of evolution into layman's terms.  The basic meaning of it is that an individual that is most "fit" to survive and reproduce in its environment will do so, and by reproducing will increase the frequency that its genes are seen in a population -- kind of a precursor to evolution known as genetic drift.  In other words, if an individual possesses a genetic trait that makes them more likely to survive and reproduce than the rest of the population, that individual is more "fit"

"Natural selection" is similar, basically stating that nature, in the form of random chance, predators, food supply, etc. determines an individual's chance of survival.  An individual that is most "fit" will stand the best chance of finding food, avoiding predators, and finding mates with which to reproduce.  In other words, nature is indirectly acting to "select" which genes are most advantageous to a population and increase the frequency that those genes are seen.

Answer 6

I see we have some 'Social Darwinists' here!  Good on kt, tonalc1, and asgspifs for their accurate definitions.

Answer 7

look up species and Darwin in google

Answer 8

The stupid worthless people that can't survive on their on will die.  That means the only the strong will reproduce and civilization will develop.  We humans ruined this by creating things like welfare.

Answer 9

survival of the fittest was a theory developed by Charles Darwin. According to him in a given ecological area, the population which exist is vast and more or less some species present are over-populated. In that case of over-population, the ones who survive are the one's who are FIT due to the competition for food that is happening. The weak organisms will eventually die out because of this competition.. I dont quiet remember how the natural selection aspect goes thou