Science Forums 2

[Boerseun]

Nope.

Some breeds of dogs' tails are routinely clipped at birth, for hundreds of years now. Their puppies are still born with full tails.

Evolution happens through accidental genetic mutation, and the offspring with beneficial mutations (however few they might be) will have an advantage over the rest. They will be more likely to breed, and the process by which the adaptions are selected for or against, is called natural selection.

Artificial selection, on the other hand, is where humans take any arbitrary animal or plant, and select the offspring for desired attributes. Thus we end up with sheep carrying more wool they can actually live with if it goes unsheared for any length of time. We also end up with cows giving more milk than a calf could normally consume.

But will-power has absolutely nada to do with it. The wimp you talk about can do body-building till he's twice the size of Schwarzenegger, it won't make one iota's difference to his offsprings' capabilities. They'll have to go to gym by themselves.