What does it mean?
“Survival of the fittest” is a phrase that originated from Darwin’s Theory of evolution and used as a way of describing natural selection. It is the continued existence of organisms which are best adapted to their environment. Whomever is the strongest will outlive everyone else, live longer and produce offspring. Those who are weak will die early and not reproduce, not continuing their existence.
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What is the difference between "Survival of the Fittest" and Natural Selection?
Survival of the fittest is different to natural selection because natural selection is an evolutionary process whereas survival of the fittest is outliving the weak. For example, some birds live in places where they have no natural enemies. This would mean that there is nothing to fly away from so overtime their ability to fly is lost and ultimately, their wings will be gone and evolve to have longer, maybe stronger legs. This is natural selection. Survival of the fittest, however, is the process of outliving a weak species by predators killing them since they are easy targets. Eventually, the species will live longer, reproduce and go through natural selection where they will evolve and become stronger than the generation before.