Natural Selection and Exapatation

Natural Selection is the process in which mutations are either spread or eliminated is a crucial part of evolution. It is a process that usually takes many years, and even then, continues on. As the environment around the animal changes, so do the animals need to adapt. Useful adaptations help the animal survive to pass on their genes, including the adaptations, while hindering adaptations only prevent the animal from surviving and therefore from passing on their hindering gene. After multiple centuries, the helpful gene would have spread to most of the population of the animal while the hindering gene would have been snuffed out.

Exaptation, a close term of natural selection, is the charge of the function of a gene in a animal. An example would be the usage of feathers in a bird. Originally, for heat regulation, the feathers eventually became for the use of flying. Due to natural selection, many useful mutations grew into flight for the birds which have remained ever since.