natural selection vs. artificial selection

natural selection vs. artificial selection: What's the difference?

Natural selection and artificial selection both refer to ways that species come to specialize in a particular trait. Natural selection happens when environmental pressures reward a trait through increased survival and reproduction, meaning it gets passed down to more offspring. Artificial selection happens when humans choose to cultivate or breed forms with a desirable trait.

natural selection

[nach-er-uhl si-lek-shuhn, nach-ruhl] / ˈnætʃ ər əl sɪˈlɛk ʃən, ˈnætʃ rəl /

noun

the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations.

artificial selection

noun

a process in the breeding of animals and in the cultivation of plants by which the breeder chooses to perpetuate only those forms having certain desirable inheritable characteristics.