16 Difference Between Natural Selection and Artificial Selection with Table

What is the difference between natural selection and artificial selection?

Charles Darwin is the pioneer of evolution. The theories of evolution explain the reason behind mutation, migration, and genetic drift. Some of these theories are a natural and artificial selection.

The main difference between natural selection and artificial selection is that the former is where nature selects the fittest organisms to cope up and adapt to all conditions whereas the latter is where organisms with desired traits are selected and genetically modified to adapt to certain conditions.

Difference Between Natural Selection and Artificial Selection

Comparison Table (Natural Selection vs Artificial Selection)

Basic Terms	Natural Selection	Artificial Selection
Description	It is where nature selects the fittest organism to cope up and adapt to all kinds of situations.	It is where organisms with desired traits are selected and genetically modified to thrive in specific conditions.
Chances of Survival	Higher	Lower
Process Rate	The slow and long process	Faster
Controlled by	Nature	Humans
Performed on	All organisms	Selected organisms with desired traits.
Transformation	Transform the entire population	Brings out a new variety of species
Type of Selection	Natural	Man-made selection
Occurrence	All kind of population	Only in the domestic population
Diversity	A large amount of biological diversity	Bring decrease in genetic diversity
Evolution	Facilitates speciation and evolution over many generations.	Do not facilitate the evolution
Hybrid vigor	Presence in offspring after evolution	Absent in offspring since it helps to preserve desired traits
Effort	No human effort involved	Mainly labor-intensive and expensive
Genotype	The proportion of heterozygous genotype is high	The proportion of homogenous genotype becomes high
Scale of Occurrence	Occur on a wide scale	Occur on selected individuals
Examples	Insecticide resistance, Giraffes long neck, beaks of Darwin’s Finches	Breeding of cows, sheep other domesticated animals high-yielding varieties of wheat, rice, etc.

What Is Natural Selection?

Natural selection is where the fittest organisms are selected naturally to cope up and adapt to all kinds of situations like weather, nutrition, genetic drift, etc.

It is also one of the primary mechanisms of evolution alongside migration, mutation, and genetic drift. It is one of the theories that were popularized by Charles Darwin.

The theory suggests that any change in the genotype of an organism increases the chances of survival and procreation in future generations.

The natural process results in the establishment of new niches and this fosters speciation. It is something that makes natural selection an essential mechanism of evolution.

The process usually occurs due to differences in survival, fertility, mating success, or in other aspects of the life cycle.

Natural selection examples are Insecticide resistance, Giraffes long neck, beaks of Darwin’s Finches. The process causes an increase in diversity which enhances the increase in heterozygous genotype.

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What Is Artificial Selection?

It is also known as selective breeding. It is a process where organisms with desired traits are selected by humans and genetically modified to develop desirable phenotype traits during breeding.

The selective breeding process does not result in evolution and speciation. The process is relatively faster and the results are seen over a few generations.

The primary purpose of artificial selection for farmers is to increase productivity and better quality. But the process is successful when it begins with purebreds since they have desirable traits.

Artificial selection examples are the breeding of cows, sheep other domesticated animals, and high yielding varieties of wheat, rice, etc. The process decreases genetic diversity in a population.

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Main Difference between Natural and Artificial Selection Class 10

Natural selection is where fittest organisms are selected naturally whereas artificial selection is where organisms with desired traits are selected by human beings.
Natural selection increases diversity whereas artificial selection lowers diversity
Natural selection is a slow and long process whereas artificial selection is a faster process.
Natural selection operates in a wide scale of the natural population whereas artificial selection operates on selected organisms only.
Natural selection results in hybrid vigor whereas artificial selection enhances the preservation of desired traits.
Natural selection enhance chances of survival whereas artificial selection risk the chances of survival in the natural environment
Natural selection fosters a higher heterozygous proportion while artificial selection fosters a higher homozygous proportion.

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Similarities between Natural and Artificial Selection

Both affect traits gained by organisms over time
Both desired traits can be passed to the new generation
Both are crucial elements of evolution

In Conclusion

Natural and artificial selection happens in plants and animals. These mechanisms of evolution result in a new species which has unique traits from their ancestors.

Natural selection pressure is exerted by nature, and artificial selection is where pressure is exerted by human beings. Natural selection is also known as selective breeding and it is man-made.

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