Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Julian Huxley coined the term in his 1942 book, Evolution: The Modern Synthesis. The synthesis combined the ideas of natural selection, Mendelian genetics, and population genetics. It also related the broad-scale macroevolution seen by palaeontologists to the small-scale microevolution of local populations.
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]
A notable example of this was the book The Material Basis of Evolution (1940) by the geneticist Richard Goldschmidt, a close friend of Filipchenko. [16] Goldschmidt suggested saltational evolutionary changes either due to mutations that affect the rates of developmental processes [ 17 ] or due to alterations in the chromosomal pattern. [ 18 ]
In 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres, a major work on the classification of invertebrates, a term which he coined. [6] In an 1802 publication, he became one of the first to use the term "biology" in its modern sense. [7] [Note 1] Lamarck continued his work as a premier authority on invertebrate zoology.
Darwinism subsequently referred to the specific concepts of natural selection, the Weismann barrier, or the central dogma of molecular biology. [2] Though the term usually refers strictly to biological evolution, creationists have appropriated it to refer to the origin of life or to cosmic evolution, that are distinct to biological evolution, [3] and therefore consider it to be the belief and ...
The term strongly suggests natural selection, yet Spencer saw evolution as extending into realms of sociology and ethics, so he also supported Lamarckism. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Spencer developed an all-embracing conception of evolution as the progressive development of the physical world, biological organisms, the human mind, and human culture and societies.
Discoveries in evolutionary biology have made a significant impact not just within the traditional branches of biology, but also in other academic disciplines (for example: anthropology and psychology) and on society at large. [3]
Some examples of evolution in species over many generations are the peppered moth and flightless birds. In the 1930s, the discipline of evolutionary biology emerged through what Julian Huxley called the modern synthesis of understanding, from previously unrelated fields of biological research, such as genetics and ecology, systematics, and ...