Example
Suppose there is a population of rabbits. The color of the rabbits is governed by two incompletely dominant traits: black fur, represented by “B”, and white fur, represented by “b”.
A rabbit in this population with a genotype of “BB” would have a phenotype of black fur, a genotype of “Bb” would have gray fur (a display of both black and white), and a genotype of “bb” would have white fur.
If this population of rabbits occurred in an environment that had areas of black rocks as well as areas of white rocks, the rabbits with black fur would be able to hide from predators amongst the black rocks, and the rabbits with white fur likewise amongst the white rocks. The rabbits with gray fur, however, would stand out in all areas of the habitat, and would thereby suffer greater predation.
As a consequence of this type of selective pressure, our hypothetical rabbit population would be disruptively selected for extreme values of the fur color trait: white or black, but not gray.
Read more about this topic: Disruptive Selection
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