Question

What does Darwin mean when he says that natural selection will change the structure of the young in relation to the parent, and of the parent in relation to their young? Is this talking about social features of an animal?

-Based on Darwin, The Origin of Species

Answer 1

natural selection is selecting some particular changes in the organism for its better survival in that surrounding.

so natural selection will change the structure of the young in relation to parent,and of the parent in relation to young actually means that, the nature will change the structure of animal for the benefit of the animal. if the change that is made by nature is not going to make any profit then there will be no modification in the animal. yes this statement is about the social feature, if any of the feature of an animal (in parent) is of great importance it will keep on changing (in youngones) in order to make that feature much more better and useful. if any features of parent has to be cahnged in offsprings then the process will be slow, not very sudden. for example: the beak of the nestling bird should be long and strong enough to break the shell of the egg from inside, but if the nature has to change the beak into a short beak for the advantage of the bird then the process will be slow because the short beak nestling will perish inside the egg and cannot even get out of the nest, so change will be simultaneously occur in the egg and beak. Any change or modification from parent to young or from youngs to parents is all for the sake of their own benefit and these changes are with respect to the need for the better survival and this process will be slow.