Evolution

Definition

Evolution is the change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as genetic drift and natural selection act on genetic variation, resulting in certain characteristics becoming more or less common within a population over successive generations. The process of evolution has given rise to biodiversity at every level of biological organisation.

Related concepts

1860 Oxford evolution debate A. Dale Kaiser Abiogenesis Abiotic component Acceptance of evolution by religious groups Acidobacteriota Actinomycetota Adam C. Siepel Adaptation Adapted Adaptive radiation Adrian Desmond Age of Earth Ajit Varki Alan Templeton Albinism Albino Alessandro Minelli (biologist)Alex Fraser (scientist)Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Wallace Algae Allele frequencies Allopatric speciation Almost Like a Whale Alternatives to Darwinian evolution Alternatives to evolution by natural selection Altruism (biology)American Journal of Human Genetics American Journal of Medical Genetics Amino acid Amniote Amphibian An Essay on the Principle of Population Anagenesis Anatomically modern humans Anaximander Animal Anisogamy Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences Annual Review of Biochemistry Annual Review of Biophysics Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics Annual Review of Genetics Annual Reviews (publisher)Ant Antagonistic pleiotropy hypothesis Anthony David Barnosky Anthony Stevens (Jungian analyst)Anthoxanthum Anti-predator adaptation Antibiotic Antibiotic resistance Antibodies Ape Appleton-Century-Crofts Applications of evolution Arabidopsis arenosa Arabidopsis thaliana Archaea Archean Aristotelianism Armand Marie Leroi Arthropod Artificial life Asexual reproduction Associated Press Assortative mating Astrobiology Astrobiology (journal)Atavism August Weismann Australian Biological Resources Study BBC BBC News Baldwin effect Baleen whale Basic Books Bdelloid rotifers Bee Behavioral and Brain Sciences Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Bert Hölldobler Bias in the introduction of variation Bibliography of biology Bimodal distribution BioEssays BioScience Biochemical Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - General Subjects Biodegradation (journal)Biodiversity Biogenic Biogeography Biological classification Biological life cycle Biological organisation Biological process Biology Biology Direct Biomass (ecology)Biopolymer Biotic component Biotic life Bird Birkhäuser Blending inheritance Brent Dalrymple Brian Charlesworth Brian K. Hall Brooks/Cole Brown algae Bruce D. Smith Callosobruchus chinensis Cambrian explosion Cambridge Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge University Press Canalisation (genetics)Canidae Carcinogenesis Caricature Carl Bergstrom Carl Linnaeus Carl Zimmer Carlo Maley Cat gap Catagenesis (biology)Catastrophism Cell (biology)Cell (journal)Cell nucleus Cellular differentiation Chapman & Hall Character displacement Charles Darwin Charles Godfray Charles Yanofsky Charlotte W. Pratt Cheating (biology)ChemBioChem Chichester Chlamydiota Chloroflexota Chloroplast Christian Science Publishing Society Christopher Wills Christos Papadimitriou Chromatin Chromosome Chronospecies Citric acid Cladistics Cladogenesis Claude Allègre Clifford Tabin Co-operation (evolution)Coccyx Coevolution Colin Patterson (biologist)Collier Books Colony (biology)Columbia University Press Common ancestor Common descent Common garter snake Comparative anatomy Competitive exclusion principle Computer science Cone cell Constructive neutral evolution Contemporary evolution Convergent evolution Cooperation (evolution)Coral of life Cornell University Press Correspondence of Charles Darwin Cosmos Cospeciation Creation and evolution in public education Creation myth Creationists Creation–evolution controversy Cretaceous Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event Crossbreed Crust (geology)Crystallin Cultural evolution Cultural group selection Current Biology Current Opinion in Microbiology Cyanobacteria Cytoplasm DNA DNA methylation Daniel Dennett Darwin's Dangerous Idea Darwin's finches Darwinism David B. Goldstein (geneticist)David Hull (philosopher)David Hume David Jablonski David M. Raup David Sedley David Sloan Wilson David Spergel De novo gene birth De rerum natura Death Deborah Charlesworth Deep homology Deep time Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts Derek Briggs Detlef Weigel Development (journal)Developmental bias Developmental biology Developmental plasticity Devolution (biology)Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion Dinosaur Directed evolution Directional selection Disruptive selection Divergent evolution Divine Dmitri Petrov Dollo's law of irreversibility Domain (biology)Domestication Domestication of the dog Donald Voet Double helix Doubleday (publisher)Douglas Erwin Douglas J. Futuyma Dual inheritance theory E. O. Wilson E. coli long-term evolution experiment Earliest known life forms Earth and Planetary Science Letters Earth science Ecological genetics Ecological niche Ecological speciation Ecosystem Ediacaran biota Effective population size Egg cell Elisabeth Lloyd Elliott Sober Embryogenesis Emile Zuckerkandl Empathy Empedocles Empirical evidence Encyclopædia Britannica Online Endomembrane system Endosymbiosis Enzyme Eoarchean Epigenetics Epistatic Epperson v. Arkansas Erasmus Darwin Ernst Freese Ernst Mayr Escherichia coli Eugene Koonin Eugene Odum Eugenie Scott Eukaryote Eukaryotic cell Eusociality Eva Jablonka Evidence of common descent Evolution & Development Evolution (disambiguation)Evolution (journal)Evolution as fact and theory Evolution in fiction Evolution of Macropodidae Evolution of ageing Evolution of bacteria Evolution of biological complexity Evolution of birds Evolution of brachiopods Evolution of butterflies Evolution of cells Evolution of cephalopods Evolution of cetaceans Evolution of color vision Evolution of color vision in primates Evolution of emotion Evolution of eusociality Evolution of fish Evolution of flagella Evolution of fungi Evolution of insects Evolution of lemurs Evolution of mammalian auditory ossicles Evolution of mammals Evolution of molluscs Evolution of morality Evolution of multicellularity Evolution of nervous systems Evolution of photosynthesis Evolution of primates Evolution of reptiles Evolution of sexual reproduction Evolution of sirenians Evolution of snake venom Evolution of spiders Evolution of tetrapods Evolution of the brain Evolution of the eye Evolution of the horse Evolution of the wolf Evolution strategies Evolutionarily stable strategy Evolutionary algorithm Evolutionary anthropology Evolutionary arms race Evolutionary biologists Evolutionary biology Evolutionary computation Evolutionary developmental biology Evolutionary ethics Evolutionary fitness Evolutionary history of life Evolutionary history of plants Evolutionary ideas of the Scientific Revolution and Enlightenment Evolutionary invasion analysis Evolutionary medicine Evolutionary mismatch Evolutionary pressure Evolutionary psychology Evolutionary taxonomy Evolutionary therapy Evolutionary tradeoff Evolutionary tree Evolutionary trees Evolvability Exaptation Excite (web portal)Exon shuffling Experimental evolution Explanatory Extended evolutionary synthesis Extinction Extinction event Eye colour Eörs Szathmáry Facts on File Fecundity Fisher's principle Fitness (biology)Fixation (population genetics)Flagella Flavobacterium Flipper (anatomy)Food chain Ford Doolittle Fossil Fossil history of flowering plants Founder effect Frances Champagne Francis Crick Francis Darwin Francisco J. Ayala Frank Sulloway Frederick Burkhardt Function (biology)Fungus Fusobacteriota Galápagos Islands Gamete Gene Gene-centered view of evolution Gene (journal)Gene duplication Gene families Gene flow Gene pool Gene product Gene redundancy Genetic algorithm Genetic assimilation Genetic disorder Genetic diversity Genetic drift Genetic engineering Genetic hitchhiking Genetic linkage Genetic networks Genetic programming Genetic recombination Genetic variation Genetica Genetics Genetics (journal)Genome Genome (journal)Genome Research Genotype Geoffrey Kirk Geographical isolation George B. Johnson Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon Georges Cuvier Gerald Joyce Gerd B. Müller Germ cell Glenn Branch Global warming Glycolysis Goose bumps Gram-positive bacteria Graphite Great Oxidation Event Gregor Mendel Grey tree frog Group selection Gustavo Caetano-Anolles Günter P. Wagner H. Allen Orr Habitat Habitat fragmentation Hadean Hair Handicap principle Hanna Kokko Haplotype Harvard University Harvard University Press Herbicide Heredity Heredity (journal)Heritability Hill–Robertson effect History of evolutionary thought History of life History of molecular evolution History of paleontology History of speciation Hoboken, New Jersey Holocene extinction Hologenome theory of evolution Homininae Hominoid Hominoids Homologous chromosome Homologous recombination Homology (biology)Horizontal gene transfer Host (biology)Hugo de Vries Human evolution Human eye Human vestigiality Hybrid (biology)Hybrid speciation Hydrogenosome Hyena Hypotheses Ian C. Johnston Ibn Khaldun Immune system In Our Time (radio series)Inbreeding Inbreeding avoidance Inclusive fitness Independence (probability theory)Independent assortment Index of evolutionary biology articles Infertile Ingo Rechenberg Institute of Medicine Integrative Biology Intelligent design International Journal of Medical Microbiology International Microbiology Internet Archive Introduction to evolution Introduction to genetics Inversion (evolutionary biology)Invertebrate Isis (journal)J. B. S. Haldane J. William Schopf James A. Lake James J. Bull James R. Lupski James W. Valentine James Watson Janet Browne Janet Thornton Janis Antonovics Japanese Journal of Human Genetics Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jerry Coyne Jo Handelsman Joanna Masel John Avise John H. Gillespie John Henry Holland John Koza John Maynard Smith John Murray (publishing house)John Raven John Ray John Tyler Bonner John Wiley & Sons Jonathan Eisen Joseph Felsenstein Journal of Biosciences Journal of Evolutionary Biology Journal of Molecular Biology Journal of Morphology Journal of Theoretical Biology Journal of Virology Journal of the American Dental Association Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology Judith G. Voet Karl J. Niklas Kevin Laland Kim Sterelny Kin recognition Kin selection Kirsten Bomblies Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District Laboratory experiments of speciation Lamarckism Last universal common ancestor Laurence Hurst Lawrence Witmer Lee Altenberg Leigh Van Valen Level of support for evolution Linkage disequilibrium Linnean Society of London Locus (genetics)Loren H. Rieseberg Lucretius Lynn Margulis Macmillan Publishers (United States)Macroevolution Maladaptation Malaspina University-College Mammal Manfred Eigen Marc Ereshefsky Marcus R. Ross Maria Servedio Marion J. Lamb Mark Bender Gerstein Martin Kreitman Martin Nowak Masatoshi Nei Massimo Pigliucci Mate choice Materialism Maternal effect Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society Mathematical and theoretical biology Mating type Matthew Meselson McGraw-Hill McGraw-Hill Higher Education Meiosis Melanocortin 1 receptor Mendelian inheritance Mercer University Press Metabolic pathway Metabolism Metasediment Methanobacteriota Mexican tetra Michael Benton Michael Bulmer Michael Ghiselin Michael J. Wade Michigan State University Microbial consortium Microbial mat Microbiology and Molecular Biology Reviews Microevolution Middle Ages Mindspark Interactive Network Missing heritability problem Mitochondria Mitochondrion Models of DNA evolution Modern synthesis Modern synthesis (20th century)Modularity (biology)Molecular Aspects of Medicine Molecular Biology and Evolution Molecular Ecology Molecular Medicine Today Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution Molecular biology Molecular clock Molecular evolution Molecular genetics Molecular machine Molecule Monogamy in animals Moor frog Morphology (biology)Mosaic evolution Most recent common ancestor Motoo Kimura Mule Multicellular organism Muqaddimah Mutation Mutation bias Mutationism Mutualism (biology)Mycorrhiza Myr Myxobacteria Nanoarchaeota Naomi Wray National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine National Academy of Sciences National Museum of Natural History National Science Foundation Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity Natural selection Naturalis Biodiversity Center Naturalists Nature (journal)Nature (philosophy)Nature Geoscience Nature Reviews Cancer Nature Reviews Genetics Naturwissenschaften Nearly neutral theory Neil Shubin Neo-Darwinian Neo-Darwinism Neoproterozoic oxygenation event Neutral mutation Neutral theory of molecular evolution Niche construction Nicholas Wade Nick Barton Nick Matzke Niles Eldredge Nonadaptive radiation Nonecological speciation Nora Noffke Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution Nucleobase Nucleotide Objections to evolution Offspring On the Origin of Species On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection Open Yale Courses Organ (biology)Origin and function of meiosis Origin of DNA Origin of avian flight Origin of birds Origin of water on Earth Origins of Life and Evolution of Biospheres Orthogenesis Othniel C. Marsh Othniel Charles Marsh Outline of evolution Oxford University Press PLOS Biology PLOS Genetics PNAS Palaeontology Paleobiology (journal)Pangenesis Panmixia Panspermia Parallel evolution Parapatric speciation Parental investment Parent–offspring conflict Pathogen Patricia J. Johnson Paul D. N. Hebert Pentachlorophenol Peppered moth Peppered moth evolution Peripatric speciation Permian–Triassic extinction event Perseus Digital Library Perspectives in Biology and Medicine Pesticide Peter Gray (psychologist)Peter H. Raven Peter J. Bowler Peter Mayhew (biologist)Phanerozoic Pharmaceutical drug Phenotype Phenotypic plasticity Phenotypic trait Phenotypic variation Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B Philosophie Zoologique Philosophy of Science (journal)Photosynthesis Phyletic gradualism Phylogenetic tree Phylogenetics Phylum Physical cosmology Physical law Physiology Pierre Louis Maupertuis Planctomycetota Plant Planta (journal)Plastid Pleiotropy Point mutation Pollen Pollinator-mediated selection Polyketide synthase Polymorphism (biology)Polyploids Population (biology)Population genetics Potentiality and actuality Pre-Socratic Precambrian Research Predators Primate Primitive reflexes Princeton University Press Prion Proceedings of the Royal Society B Programmed cell death Prokaryote Protein Protein domain Protein structure Proterozoic Protocell Protozoa Pseudogene Pseudomonadota Pseudoscientific Punctuated equilibrium Quantitative trait loci RNA RNA interference RNA world hypothesis Random House Recent common ancestor Reciprocal altruism Reciprocity (evolution)Red Queen hypothesis Reinforcement (speciation)Rejection of evolution by religious groups Religious text Reproductive isolation Richard Lenski Richard Lewontin Robert Axelrod (political scientist)Robert Hazen Robert L. Carroll Robert R. Sokal Rod cell Ronald Fisher Rosalind Franklin Rough-skinned newt Rough Guides Routledge Russell Lande Rutgers University Saccharomyces cerevisiae Salon.com Saltation (biology)Sampling bias Sampling error Sarah Otto Saunders (imprint)Science (journal)Scientific American Scientific Revolution Scientific theory Scopes trial Sean B. Carroll Selectable marker Selective breeding Selective sweep Sewall Wright Sex-determination system Sexual dimorphism Sexual reproduction Sexual selection Sexual selection in flowering plants Sexual selection in fungi Signal transduction Signalling theory Simon & Schuster Simon Tavaré Sinauer Associates Slime molds Slime moulds Smithsonian Institution Social effects of evolutionary theory Social selection Somatic cell Spandrel (biology)Speciation Species Species complex Species problem Species selection Sperm Sphingobium Spirochaetota Spliceosome Sponge Spontaneous generation Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg Springer-Verlag New York Springer Science+Business Media Squid Stabilising selection Stephen Blair Hedges Stephen C. Stearns Stephen Jay Gould Stephen P. Hubbell Steve Jones (biologist)Stochastic Structuralism (biology)Structure (journal)Stuart Kauffman Stuart Pimm Sunburn Suntanned Superseded theories in science Susumu Ohno Symbiogenesis Symbiosis Sympatric speciation Systematics Systematics and the Origin of Species T. Ryan Gregory TalkOrigins Archive Taxa Taxon Teleological Teleology in biology Teleonomy Tempo and Mode in Evolution Termite Tetrapod Tetrodotoxin The American Naturalist The British Journal for the History of Science The British Society for the History of Science The Christian Science Monitor The Daily Telegraph The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals The Growth of Biological Thought The International Journal of Developmental Biology The Major Transitions in Evolution The New York Times The Quarterly Review of Biology The Structure of Evolutionary Theory The Theory of Evolution The eclipse of Darwinism Theistic evolution Theists Theodosius Dobzhansky Theory of forms Thermophiles Thermoproteota Thomas Cavalier-Smith Thomas Henry Huxley Thomas Robert Malthus Timeline of evolutionary history of life Timeline of the evolutionary history of life Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance Transitional fossil Translocase of the inner membrane Transmutation of species Transposons Trends in Biochemical Sciences Trends in Ecology & Evolution Trends in Genetics Trends in Microbiology Trimethoprim Trivers–Willard hypothesis Tufts University Tyrannosaurus rex Ulrich Kutschera Umesh Vazirani Unicellular Unicellular organism Uniformitarianism Unit of selection United States Geological Survey Universe University of California, Berkeley University of California Museum of Paleontology University of California Press University of Cambridge University of Chicago Press University of Illinois Press University of Michigan Press Variance Vermiform appendix Vertebrate Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation Vestigial Vestigial trait Vicar of Bray (scientific hypothesis)Viking Press Vincent Savolainen Viral evolution Vitalism W. D. Hamilton Warren Ewens Weidenfeld & Nicolson Wendy Mao Wild boar Wiley-Blackwell Will Provine Willi Hennig William Ellery Leonard William G. Hill William Paley Wisdom teeth Wonderful Life (book)World Scientific Xenobiotic metabolism Yale University Yale University Press Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society

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