What is artificial selection or selective breeding?
Artificial selection, also called “selection breeding”, is where humans select for desirable traits in agricultural products or animals, rather than leaving the species to evolve and change gradually without human interference, like in natural selection.
Dog breeding is a perfect example of how humans select for desirable or fashionable traits. There are three types of breeds that exist.
- Purebred is a type of dog that comes from a lineage of the same dog breed and that has never mated with another breed. For example, a purebred German shepherd is all German shepherd and nothing else.
- A cross-breed dog is a dog that was the offspring of two different types of purebreds. If a purebred German shepherd mated with a purebred husky, the resulting offspring would be a cross-breed of half German shepherd, half husky.
- Finally, mixed-breeds are a combination of multiple breeds, where their parents were not purebreds.
Common misconceptions about evolution
Evolution is not the same as adaptation or natural selection. Terms like “progress” or “improvement” are not a part of the definition of evolution because evolution is context dependent. One trait might be highly advantageous in one environment, but high detrimental in another.