"Evolutionary biology is the subfield of biology that studies the evolutionary processes (natural selection, common descent, speciation) that produced the diversity of life on Earth."
The study of the origin and changes in living organisms over time.
Natural selection: The process by which beneficial traits are selected for and passed on to future generations.
Adaptation: The process by which an organism becomes better suited to its environment through genetic changes.
Genetic drift: Random changes in the frequency of alleles in a population, often due to chance events.
Gene flow: The transfer of genes from one population to another.
Speciation: The process by which new species evolve from existing ones.
Phylogenetics: The study of the evolutionary relationships between organisms.
Molecular evolution: The study of the changes in genes and proteins that drive evolutionary processes.
Population genetics: The study of genetic variation within and between populations.
Selective pressure: External factors that influence the survival and reproduction of organisms, leading to natural selection.
Mutation: Changes in DNA sequence that can lead to new traits and drive evolution.
"It is also defined as the study of the history of life forms on Earth."
"Evolution holds that all species are related and gradually change over generations."
"In a population, the genetic variations affect the phenotypes (physical characteristics) of an organism."
"These changes in the phenotypes will be an advantage to some organisms, which will then be passed onto their offspring."
"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 paleontology."
"The investigational range of current research has widened to encompass the genetic architecture of adaptation, molecular evolution, and the different forces that contribute to evolution, such as sexual selection, genetic drift, and biogeography."
"Moreover, the newer field of evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo") investigates how embryogenesis is controlled, thus yielding a wider synthesis that integrates developmental biology with the fields of study covered by the earlier evolutionary synthesis."