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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.
Microevolution is the change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population. [1] This change is due to four different processes: mutation, selection (natural and artificial), gene flow and genetic drift. This change happens over a relatively short (in evolutionary terms) amount of time compared to the changes termed macroevolution.
Gene flow is the transfer of alleles from one population to another population through immigration of individuals. In population genetics, gene flow (also known as migration and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent ...
Also called functionalism. The Darwinian view that many or most physiological and behavioral traits of organisms are adaptations that have evolved for specific functions or for specific reasons (as opposed to being byproducts of the evolution of other traits, consequences of biological constraints, or the result of random variation). adaptive radiation The simultaneous or near-simultaneous ...
Gene flow: Gene flow [14] is the transfer of genetic material from the gene pool of one population to another. In a population, migration occurs from one species to another, resulting in the change of allele frequency. Natural selection: The survival and reproductive rate of a species depends on the adaptability of the species to their environment.
In evolutionary developmental biology, heterochrony is any genetically controlled difference in the timing, rate, or duration of a developmental process in an organism compared to its ancestors or other organisms. This leads to changes in the size, shape, characteristics and even presence of certain organs and features.
Seen like this, adaptation is a genetic tracking process, which goes on all the time to some extent, but especially when the population cannot or does not move to another, less hostile area. Given enough genetic change, as well as specific demographic conditions, an adaptation may be enough to bring a population back from the brink of ...
Spending time and resources assisting a related individual may at first seem destructive to an organism's chances of survival but is actually beneficial over the long-term. Since relatives share part of the helper's genetic make-up, enhancing each individual's chance of survival may actually increase the likelihood that the helper's genetic ...