Herbert Spencer coined the phrase in his "Principles of Biology" It was after Darwin's work was published.
While it creates an cliche image of :dog eat dog, tooth and claw, law of the jungle.etc." That's a major error.
What it means is that the fittest are those individuals that survive to reproduce and pass their genes on. That and nothing more. Those that have traits that help them better deal with their environment tend to last long enough to have offspring. Ideally their successful traits get passed along to the offspring.
Take blue eyes. Look in most magazine ads and you'll find blue eyes as a standard of beauty. Those with the trait may get more of a chance to marry well, survive and have children.Were their children to have blue eyes then they would also have a better chance. While blue eyes is a standard of beauty (see the ads) only 8% of the species has the trait.
He said 'survival of those most capable of adapting.'
He is misquoted on this for over 120 years and STILL is misquoted.
His point was, those that are able to change as situations and climate and geography change will be the fittest to survive because they can adapt to new circumstances.
The tree-dwelling Primates who learned to adapt to ground walking (and losing the opposing toe in the process) turned out to be fitter to survive than those primates who stayed in the canopy and starved. Those in the canopy that did survive, remained tree-dwelling primates (Apes, Chimps, etc) while the ground walkers gradually evolved into Humans. And then became the top species on The Planet.
Variations of a species that are most adapted or fit to survive in their environment prosper to future generations, leading to gradual drift in genetic features. The phrase "Survival of the fittest" was coined by Herbert Spencer, who had his own separate conclusions about evolution.
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Herbert Spencer coined the phrase in his "Principles of Biology" It was after Darwin's work was published.
While it creates an cliche image of :dog eat dog, tooth and claw, law of the jungle.etc." That's a major error.
What it means is that the fittest are those individuals that survive to reproduce and pass their genes on. That and nothing more. Those that have traits that help them better deal with their environment tend to last long enough to have offspring. Ideally their successful traits get passed along to the offspring.
Take blue eyes. Look in most magazine ads and you'll find blue eyes as a standard of beauty. Those with the trait may get more of a chance to marry well, survive and have children.Were their children to have blue eyes then they would also have a better chance. While blue eyes is a standard of beauty (see the ads) only 8% of the species has the trait.
He never said, “survival of the fittest.” ever..!
He said 'survival of those most capable of adapting.'
He is misquoted on this for over 120 years and STILL is misquoted.
His point was, those that are able to change as situations and climate and geography change will be the fittest to survive because they can adapt to new circumstances.
The tree-dwelling Primates who learned to adapt to ground walking (and losing the opposing toe in the process) turned out to be fitter to survive than those primates who stayed in the canopy and starved. Those in the canopy that did survive, remained tree-dwelling primates (Apes, Chimps, etc) while the ground walkers gradually evolved into Humans. And then became the top species on The Planet.
Variations of a species that are most adapted or fit to survive in their environment prosper to future generations, leading to gradual drift in genetic features. The phrase "Survival of the fittest" was coined by Herbert Spencer, who had his own separate conclusions about evolution.