Over time, color variation in a population of butterflies declined. The number of color variations within the population was twelve in 1985. In 2005, the number of color variations reduced to three. What type of selection is responsible for reducing variation?

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Biology

Eleanor

10 September, 00:44

Over time, color variation in a population of butterflies declined. The number of color variations within the population was twelve in 1985. In 2005, the number of color variations reduced to three. What type of selection is responsible for reducing variation?

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Triston Harding · Answer 1

The answer is stabilizing selection. This type of natural selection in which the population mean stabilizes on a particular non-extreme trait value. This type of natural selection is the most widely seen in which there are no drastic changes in traits of the population in long times. Extreme traits of the population are weeded out hence the subsequent generations of the population have less diversity than the initial. The illustration below shows this model in relation to the others.