"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."
It is the study of how life forms change over time.
Natural selection: The process whereby organisms with advantageous traits are more likely to survive and reproduce.
Adaptation: The process whereby organisms evolve to become better suited to their particular environment.
Genetic variation: The diversity of genetic traits that exist within a population or species.
Phylogeny: The study of the evolutionary history of organisms and their relationships to one another.
Evolutionary ecology: The study of how organisms interact with their environment and how those interactions shape their evolution.
Evolutionary genetics: The study of how genetic variation evolves over time and is transmitted from generation to generation.
Molecular evolution: The study of how genes and genomes evolve over time, including changes in DNA sequence, structure, and function.
Comparative anatomy: The study of the similarities and differences between the anatomy of different organisms, used to build phylogenetic trees.
Fossils and paleontology: The study of extinct organisms and their relationships to living organisms.
Biogeography: The study of the geographical distribution of living organisms, and how it relates to their evolutionary history.
Ontogeny: The study of an individual organism's development over time, and how that development is related to its evolutionary history.
Systematics: The study of organizing and classifying organisms based on both evolutionary relationships and shared physical characteristics.
Population genetics: The study of how genetic variation is distributed within and between populations, and how it changes over time.
Speciation: The process of how new species arise due to evolutionary processes.
Genomics: The study of the structure, function, and evolution of genomes, including DNA sequence and gene expression.
Epigenetics: The study of how environmental factors can influence gene expression and affect inheritance without changes to DNA sequence.
Microbial evolution: The study of how evolutionary processes apply to microorganisms, from viruses to bacteria and archaea.
Evo-devo: The study of how evolutionary changes in development give rise to the diversity of animal and plant forms we see today.
Social evolution: The study of how social behavior evolves among individuals within a population or species.
Human evolution: The study of the evolutionary history of our own species and the related primates.
Molecular Evolution: Study of changes in DNA and genetic material to understand evolutionary relationships.
Population Genetics: Study of changes in genetic material in populations over time.
Phylogenetics: Study of the evolutionary relationships among species.
Comparative Morphology: Study of the structure and function of organisms to understand how they have evolved over time.
Biogeography: Study of the distribution of organisms across different regions and how it relates to their evolutionary history.
Evo-Devo: Study of the interplay between evolutionary and developmental processes.
Behavioral Ecology: Study of how behavior has evolved and how it contributes to survival and reproductive success.
Paleobiology: Study of the evolutionary history of life on Earth using fossils.
Ecology and Evolutionary Ecology: Study of the interactions between organisms and their environment and how they have evolved over time.
Evolutionary Game Theory: Study of how games and strategic interactions can 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."