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The history of the camel provides an example of how fossil evidence can be used to reconstruct migration and subsequent evolution. The fossil record indicates that the evolution of camelids started in North America (see figure 4e), from which, six million years ago, they migrated across the Bering Strait into Asia and then to Africa, and 3.5 ...
Phylogenetic comparative methods (PCMs) use information on the historical relationships of lineages (phylogenies) to test evolutionary hypotheses.The comparative method has a long history in evolutionary biology; indeed, Charles Darwin used differences and similarities between species as a major source of evidence in The Origin of Species.
Direct reciprocity was proposed by Robert Trivers as a mechanism for the evolution of cooperation. [1] If there are repeated encounters between the same two players in an evolutionary game in which each of them can choose either to "cooperate" or "defect", then a strategy of mutual cooperation may be favoured even if it pays each player, in the short term, to defect when the other cooperates.
Evidence of common descent – Common ancestor evolutionary evidence Evolutionary grade – Non-monophyletic grouping of organisms united by morphological or physiological characteristics Lineage (evolution) – Sequence of populations, organisms, cells, or genes that form a line of descent
The functionality of LUCA as well as evidence for the early evolution of membrane-dependent biological systems together suggest that LUCA had cellularity and cell membranes. [19] As for the cell's structure, it contained a water-based cytoplasm effectively enclosed by a lipid bilayer membrane; it was capable of reproducing by cell division. [10]
It differs from divergent evolution as the species involved do not descend from a closely related common ancestor and the traits accumulated are similar. [4] An example of convergent evolution is the development of flight in birds, bats, and insects, all of which are not closely related but share analogous structures allowing for flight. [8]
Atavisms are often seen as evidence of evolution. [6] In social sciences, atavism is the tendency of reversion: for example, people in the modern era reverting to the ways of thinking and acting of a former time. The word atavism is derived from the Latin atavus—a great-great-great-grandfather or, more generally, an ancestor.
The evolutionary approach is key to much current research in biology that does not set out to study evolution per se, especially in organismal biology and ecology. For example, evolutionary thinking is key to life history theory. Annotation of genes and their function relies heavily on comparative, that is evolutionary, approaches.