Origin and Evolution of Life — BIOLOGY STD 12 Science — Question

1. The natural selection that disrupts the mean characters of the population, is called disruptive selection.
2. Greater number of individuals acquire peripheral character value at both ends of the distribution curve. E.g. Finches with large size or small size, both will be selected.
3. Extreme phenotypes are selected in evolutionary process and intermediate forms are eliminated.
4. When distribution curve is plotted it shows two peaks for two extremes.
5. Disruptive selection is rare because, nature always tries to balance the characters.
6. It ensures the effect on the entire gene pool of a population, considering all mating types or systems.

Example of disruptive selection:
African seed cracker finches are types of seed-feeder birds which have different sizes of beak. The seeds available to them were of small and large sized. Large beak sized birds feeds on large seeds while small beak sized birds feed on small seeds.

Such large and small birds thus thrive well. However, intermediate beak sized birds are unable to feed on either type of seeds so they starve and their population was decreased gradually. Natural selection eliminated them and thus the population of finches appear disrupted.