Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
[101] 66 Ma- Rapid dominance of conifers and ginkgos in high latitudes, along with mammals becoming the dominant species. First psammobiid bivalves. Earliest rodents. Rapid diversification in ants. 63 Ma Evolution of the creodonts, an important group of meat-eating (carnivorous) mammals. 62 Ma Evolution of the first penguins. 60 Ma
Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. [1] [2] It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. [3]
The annual life cycle has evolved in over 120 plant families across the entire angiosperm phylogeny. [213] Notably, the prevalence of annual species increases under hot-dry summer conditions in different families including Asteraceae, Brassicaceae, Fabaceae, and Poaceae. [212] Leaves have evolved multiple times - see Evolutionary history of plants.
Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last common ancestor of those groups. The cladistic term for the same phenomenon is homoplasy.
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
The authors of this study concluded that speciation was discernible. In another study concerning morphological trends and rates of evolution found that the European arvicolid rodent radiated into 52 distinct lineages over a time frame of 5 million years while documenting examples of phyletic gradualism, punctuation, and stasis. [227]
Trilobites saw great diversification over time. [22] For such a long-lasting group of animals, it is no surprise that trilobite evolutionary history is marked by a number of extinction events where some groups perished, and surviving groups diversified to fill ecological niches with comparable or unique adaptations.
Primates first evolved sometime between the Middle Cretaceous and the early Paleocene periods on either the supercontinent of Laurasia or in Africa. [2] According to molecular clock studies, the last common ancestor of all primates dates to around 79.6 mya, [3] although the earliest known fossil primates are only 54–55 million years old. [4]