Zoology 10th Edition by Stephen Miller,John Harley

Exercise 3

Natural selection occurs because organisms have a high reproductive potential. Many variations within populations are inherited, and when organisms struggle for survival with other organisms or their environment, many individuals die. Those that survive pass adaptive traits, those traits that make them more likely to be successful at reproducing, on to their offspring. Maladaptive traits become less common, and thus the population changes.
Is there a difference in thinking about natural selection as weeding out less fit variations versus selecting for adaptive variations? Explain.