In evolutionary biology, group selection is a theory that alleles can become fixed or spread in a population because of the benefits they bestow on groups. This theory proposes a causal mechanism for traits that cannot be attributed to the agency of natural selection acting on individual alleles or the fitness of individuals within that group.
Group selection was used as a popular explanation for adaptations, especially by V. C. Wynne-Edwards. For several decades, however, critiques, particularly by George C. Williams, John Maynard Smith and C.M. Perrins (1964), cast serious doubt on group selection as a major mechanism of evolution, and though some scientists have pursued the idea over the last few decades, only recently have group selection models seen a resurgence.
Read more about Group Selection: Overview, The Haystack Model and Trait Groups, Multilevel Selection Theory, Group Selection Indicated By Gene-culture Coevolution, Group Selection Due To Differing ESSs, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the words group and/or selection:
“[The Republicans] offer ... a detailed agenda for national renewal.... [On] reducing illegitimacy ... the state will use ... funds for programs to reduce out-of-wedlock pregnancies, to promote adoption, to establish and operate children’s group homes, to establish and operate residential group homes for unwed mothers, or for any purpose the state deems appropriate. None of the taxpayer funds may be used for abortion services or abortion counseling.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“Every writer is necessarily a critic—that is, each sentence is a skeleton accompanied by enormous activity of rejection; and each selection is governed by general principles concerning truth, force, beauty, and so on.... The critic that is in every fabulist is like the iceberg—nine-tenths of him is under water.”
—Thornton Wilder (1897–1975)