Types of Natural Selection: Disruptive, Stabilizing, and Directional Explained #3852901 (License: Personal Use)

This diagram shows how phenotypic trait distributions change under three evolutionary pressures: disruptive selection splits a population toward two extremes (e.g., small and large beak sizes), stabilizing selection narrows variation around the mean (e.g., human birth weight), and directional selection shifts the average toward one extreme (e.g., antibiotic resistance in bacteria). Each panel overlays red “Before” and blue “After” curves to illustrate the selective outcome over generations.

Used in biology education, textbooks, and online learning modules to teach evolutionary mechanisms; matches user intent seeking conceptual clarity on selection types via visual aid.