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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]
Examples of this include cars, trains, computers, and lights. Machines allow humans to tremendously exceed the limitations of their bodies. Putting a machine on the farm, a tractor, increased food productivity at least tenfold over the technology of the plow and the horse. The third, and final stage of technological evolution is the automation ...
The theory of evolution explains these homologous structures: all four animals shared a common ancestor, and each has undergone change over many generations. These changes in structure have produced forelimbs adapted for different tasks. [49] The bird and the bat wing are examples of convergent evolution.
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 ...
Biology – Science that studies life Evolutionary biology – Study of the processes that produced the diversity of life Evolutionary developmental biology – Comparison of organism developmental processes; Genetics – Science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms; Biogeography – Study of distribution of species
Darwinian evolution by natural selection is pervasive in literature, whether taken optimistically in terms of how humanity may evolve towards perfection, or pessimistically in terms of the dire consequences of the interaction of human nature and the struggle for survival.
Biologists are able to study life at multiple levels of organization, [1] from the molecular biology of a cell to the anatomy and physiology of plants and animals, and evolution of populations. [1] [6] Hence, there are multiple subdisciplines within biology, each defined by the nature of their research questions and the tools that they use.
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.