Final answer:
Overproduction is a concept in natural selection where organisms produce more offspring than can survive, leading to competition and subsequent survival of those with favorable traits, resulting in evolutionary change over time.
Step-by-step explanation:
Overproduction in the context of natural selection refers to organisms producing more offspring than can possibly survive given the limitations of their environment. This leads to competition for resources among the offspring. Consequently, those with favorable inherited traits that confer a survival or reproductive advantage are more likely to survive and pass these traits onto the next generation. These inherited traits may include adaptations such as better running speed or other advantages that help individuals avoid predators, find food, or reproduce successfully. Over time, natural selection can lead to populations evolving to better fit their environment. However, it is important to note that natural selection is not a process that creates new traits; it selects among existing variations within the population, driven by factors such as mutations and gene flow.
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace developed the concept of natural selection by observing nature's capacity for overproduction and the subsequent struggle for existence. This idea is paralleled in artificial selection, where humans selectively breed organisms with desirable traits, promoting the prevalence of those traits over generations.