XIII.3.3 Sexual reproduction can be a one-way evolutionary trap

Biological evolution is basically an opportunist process that cannot predict, in advance, the future effects that a certain change will bring in time.As a consequence, organisms can sometimes end up in a sort of evolutionary trap; structures or patterns of behaviour can emerge and prevail in them that are very detrimental for their carriers and the species.The evolutionary trap mechanism is also sometimes considered to be a possible cause of the present-day predominance of  sexually reproducing species.

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The classical Darwinian theory of evolution can explain the evolution of adaptive traits only in asexual organisms. The frozen plasticity theory is much more general: It can also explain the origin and evolution of adaptive traits in both asexual and sexual organisms Read more
Draft translation from: Evoluční biologie, 2. vydání (Evolutionary biology, 2nd edition), J. Flegr, Academia Prague 2009. The translation was not done by biologist, therefore any suggestion concerning proper scientific terminology and language usage are highly welcomed. You can send your comments to flegratcesnet [dot] cz. Thank you.