The Red Queen hypothesis was coined in evolutionary biology to explain that a species must adapt and evolve not just for reproductive advantage, but also for survival because competing organisms also are evolving.

What does Red Queen effect predict?

The Red Queen Hypothesis (RQH) predicts that coevolution between hosts and parasites acts to maintain genetic variation through time. … Parasites thereby exert negative frequency-dependent selection on their hosts, with the most common host genotypes having low fitness and declining in frequency as parasites infect them.

How does the Red Queen apply to humans?

Over the years, evolutionary biologists have used the Red Queen’s statement to refer to the “Red Queen” hypothesis, which describes how living organisms, including humans, manage to survive in a changing environment by adapting through sexual reproduction.