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The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002) is Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould's technical book on macroevolution and the historical development of evolutionary theory. [1] The book was twenty years in the making, [2] published just two months before Gould's death. [3] Aimed primarily at professionals, [4] the volume is divided into ...
Level of support for evolution – Variation in support for the theory of evolution; Objections to evolution – Arguments that have been made against evolution; Social effects of evolutionary theory – Effects on human societies of the scientific explanation of life's diversity; Theology of creationism and evolution – Topic in theology
Here the evolution of human society (socialization) is ruled by psychological, economic, informational and communicative processes. For Teilhard there is a further stage, one of spiritual evolution , the Christing of the collective noosphere, in which humanity converges in a single divinisation he calls the Omega Point .
Professor of biology Jerry Coyne sums up biological evolution succinctly: [3]. Life on Earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species – perhaps a self-replicating molecule – that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diverse species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection.
These alternative ways of dividing up the subject have been combined with evolutionary biology to create subfields like evolutionary ecology and evolutionary developmental biology. More recently, the merge between biological science and applied sciences gave birth to new fields that are extensions of evolutionary biology, including evolutionary ...
Macroevolution is often thought to require the evolution of structures that are 'completely new'. However, fundamentally novel structures are not necessary for dramatic evolutionary change. As can be seen in vertebrate evolution , most "new" organs are actually not new—they are simply modifications of previously existing organs.
In 1985, biologist Robert G. B. Reid authored Evolutionary Theory: The Unfinished Synthesis, which argued that the modern synthesis with its emphasis on natural selection is an incomplete picture of evolution, and emergent evolution can explain the origin of genetic variation. [25] [26] [27]
In Darwin's theory of natural selection, more organisms are produced than can survive. Some have variations that give them a competitive advantage, and they have the best chance of surviving and procreating. The main element lacking in the theory was any mechanism that would allow organisms to pass on these favorable variations.