Entry #4: Natural and Sexual Selection

Natural selection is an evolutionary process where organisms inherit heritable traits that help them to live longer lives. These traits can help the organism live a longer life and also help the generations after them and their offspring survive and keep the lineage prolonged. Sexual selection is the struggle between individuals of one sex in order to have possession over the other sex. How Darwin explains the difference between the two is that natural selection is the “struggle for existence in relation to other organic beings or to external conditions” and that sexual selection is the “struggle between the individuals of one sex, generally the males, for the possession of the other sex.” How Dawkins explains the difference between the two is he calls natural selection “Parental Investment” which is “any investment by the parent in an individual offspring that increases the offspring’s chance of surviving at the cost of the parent’s ability to invest in other offspring.” He looks at sexual selection as being a battle of the sexes. Both sexes want sons and daughters in equal numbers, and with this they agree. With what they disagree with is who is going to “bear the brunt of the cost of rearing each one of those children.” Darwin says that they do want children but who is going to put more effort into raising them, the mother or the father? The mother and the father want their children to survive but they need to invest energy into bringing them up.