Question

If natural selection has no foresight, how can it explain features that seem to prepare organisms for future events? for example, deciduous trees at high latitudes drop their leaves before winter arrives, male birds establish territories before females arrive in the spring, and animals such as squirrels and jays store food as winter approach

Answer 1

Natural selection explains how traits evolve in response to environmental pressures, not future predictions. Traits such as leaf-dropping in deciduous trees, reproductive behaviors in birds, and food storage in animals are adaptions that evolved due to past advantages in survival and reproduction, not anticipation of the future.

Step-by-step explanation:

Natural selection does not have foresight; it cannot predict future events. However, it explains that certain traits are favored when they confer a survival advantage within a given environmental context. As environments change, directional selection can lead to features that seem to prepare organisms for future conditions, but in reality, these features have been selected for due to past and current environmental pressures.

For example, deciduous trees at high latitudes losing leaves before winter is an adaptation that developed because trees that retained leaves would suffer from the weight of snow and the loss of water, making them less likely to survive. Male birds establishing territories before females arrive speaks to the reproductive success of early claim-stakers. And animals such as squirrels and jays storing food for winter is a behavior that evolved due to the immediate survival benefit in periods when food was scarce.

The process of evolution by natural selection is continuously shaping life-forms in response to their environments. These adaptative traits become more common in the population over time, as they allow organisms to survive long enough to reproduce and pass on the advantageous traits.

Answer 2

The genes in a population give forth the genetic variability across a population (genotypes). In addition, occasional mutations of these genes in a population increase this genetic variability. Hovever, natural selection only favours reproduction of individuals with genes that are favourable in the environment/habitat. Therefore, natural selection has no foresight but is rather pegged on being an ‘opportunistic’ process.