Search Dictionary
Version history
- Current: Jan 21, 2023
- See old versions
Fitness
Degree of adaptation to a specific environment. When an individual has a higher chance of reproductive success in a specific environment, the individual is considered to have high fitness.
The reproductive success can be measured only by observing future generations. In this regard, fitness and adaptation are the "consequence" of natural selection; i.e., it is impossible to predict that a trait increases fitness. After observing the selected trait, it is concluded that the trait has increased the fitness.
Definitions in the literature
- ... we define fitness as the degree of adaptation to a specific environment, and measure it by relative genetic contribution to future generations [1].
- Direct fitness: A measure of the relative breeding success of an individual in a given population at a given time [2].
