- red: CR
- white: CW
A F1 generation cross between a red and white flowered plant would go:
CW | |
CR | CW CR |
All the offspring (F1) would be pink flowered.
Now, the F2 generation cross:
CR | CW | |
CR | CR CR | CR CW |
CW | CR CW | CW CW |
The resulting phenotypes are:
- 25% red
- 50% pink
- 25% white
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Stabilising Selection
This form of selection works in the opposite sense to directional selection: it occurs when there’s no change to the environment. This means that there’s no selective pressures on a species which is well adapted to its environment. Fossil records show that for long periods of geological time a lot of species didn’t change.
Like, for example, deep in the ocean. The fish species Coelacanth was found in ancient fossils. It was thought that it had been extinct for about 70 million years but then was found in 1938 caught in a trawler net in South Africa. This means that within all that time it had not changed.