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Outline of evolution

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The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to evolution:

A diagram showing the relationships betweens various groups of organisms

Evolution – change in heritable traits of biological organisms over generations due to natural selection, mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift. Also known as descent with modification. Over time these evolutionary processes lead to formation of new species (speciation), changes within lineages (anagenesis), and loss of species (extinction). "Evolution" is also another name for evolutionary biology, the subfield of biology concerned with studying evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth.

Fundamentals about evolution

Life timeline
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−4500 —–—–−4000 —–—–−3500 —–—–−3000 —–—–−2500 —–—–−2000 —–—–−1500 —–—–−1000 —–—–−500 —–—–0 — Water Single-celled life Photosynthesis Eukaryotes Multicellular life P
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←Earth formed
←Earliest water
←LUCA
←Earliest fossils
←LHB meteorites
←Earliest oxygen
←Pongola glaciation*
←Atmospheric oxygen
←Huronian glaciation*
←Sexual reproduction
←Earliest multicellular life
←Earliest fungi
←Earliest plants
←Earliest animals
←Cryogenian ice age*
←Ediacaran biota
←Cambrian explosion
←Hirnantian glaciation*
←Earliest tetrapods
←Karoo ice age*
←Earliest apes / humans
←Quaternary ice age*
(million years ago)*Ice Ages


Introduction

Basic principles

  • Macroevolution – Evolution on a scale at or above the level of species
    • Speciation – Evolutionary process by which populations evolve to become distinct species
      • Natural speciation
        • Allopatric speciation – Speciation that occurs between geographically isolated populations
        • Peripatric speciation – speciation in which a new species is formed from an isolated smaller peripheral populationPages displaying wikidata descriptions as a fallback
        • Parapatric speciation – Speciation within a population where subpopulations are reproductively isolated
        • Sympatric speciation – Evolution of a new species from an ancestor in the same location
      • Artificial speciation
      • Hybrid speciation – Form of speciation involving hybridization between two different species
    • Despeciation – Loss of a species of animal due to its combining with another species
    • Anagenesis – Gradual evolutionary change in a species without splitting
    • Extinction – Termination of a taxon by the death of its last member
  • Microevolution – Change in allele frequencies that occurs over time within a population – change within species or populations, due to mutation, selection (natural and artificial), gene flow, and genetic drift
    • Artificial selection – Breeding used to develop desired characteristics – the process by which humans increase particular traits in a lineage or population by choosing which individuals have offspring together (also called Selective breeding)
    • Natural selection – Mechanism of evolution by differential survival and reproduction of individuals
      • Sexual selection – Mode of natural selection involving the choosing of and competition for mates – a mode of natural selection wherein members of one gender choose mates of the other gender to mate with, resulting in distinct gender-based differences
    • Mutation – Alteration in the nucleotide sequence of a genome – a permanent change of the genome of an organism (nucleotide sequence), a key mechanism of evolution
    • Gene flow – Transfer of genetic variation from one population to another – movement of genes from one population to another (through migration, dispersal, transport of pollen, etc.)
    • Genetic drift – Concept in genetics – change in frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a population due to random sampling

Subfields

  • Biogeography – the study of distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time
  • Ecological genetics – the study of genetics in natural populations
  • Evolutionary biology – study of the evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth. More specifically, it studies the descent of species, and the origin of new species.
    • Evolutionary developmental biology – the study of developmental processes to determine the ancestral relationships and discover how developmental processes evolved (informally called evo-devo)
  • Evolutionary ecology – the study of ecology with explicit consideration of evolutionary histories of species, or conversely the study of evolution that incorporates an understanding of ecological interactions between the species
  • Evolutionary physiology – the study of changes in functional characteristics over generations as the result of selection
  • Evolutionary taxonomy – branch of biological classification that classifies organisms based on phylogenetic relationship (shared descent), progenitor-descendant relationship (serial descent), and degree of evolutionary change
  • Experimental evolution – study of evolution using controlled experiments to test hypotheses and theories
  • Molecular evolution – study of change in sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations
  • Phylogenetics – study of evolutionary history, development, and relationships among groups of organisms
  • Population genetics – study of distribution and change in frequency of alleles within populations
  • Paleontology – study of evolution of life based on the fossil record
  • Systematics – study of diversification of living forms, both past and present, and relationships among living organisms through time

History

  • Charles Darwin – English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory
  • By period or event
  • By field

Evolutionary theory and modelling

See also Basic principles (above)

Population genetics

Evolutionary phenomena

Modelling

Taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny

Fundamentals

Basic concepts of phylogenetics

Inference methods

Current topics

Group Traits

Group Types

  • Monophyly – Property of a group of including all taxa descendant from a common ancestral species
  • Paraphyly – Type of taxonomic group
  • Polyphyly – Property of a group not united by common ancestry

Evolution of biodiversity

  • Biodiversity – variety of different types of life found on the Earth and the variations within species. It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species) within an area, biome, or planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator, which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity. Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. It is richest in the tropics. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans.

Origin and evolutionary history of life

Evolution of organisms

Evolution of tetrapods

Evolution of other animals

Evolution of plants

Evolution of other taxa

Evolution of cells, organs, and systems

Evolution of molecules and genes

Evolution of behaviour

Evolution of other processes

Applications in other disciplines

Evolutionary issues

Controversy about evolution

Religious and philosophical views of evolution

Influence of evolutionary theory

Publications and organizations concerning evolution

Books

Journals

Organizations

Evolution scholars and researchers

Prominent evolutionary biologists

See also


  • Biogeography – Study of distribution of species
  • Conscious evolution – Hypothetical ability of the human species to choose what they will become – claim that humanity has acquired the ability to choose what the species Homo sapiens becomes in the future, based on recent advancements in science, medicine, technology, psychology, sociology, and spirituality. Conscious evolution assumes that human beings may be positioned at the crest of the ongoing evolution of the universe.
  • Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – Interdisciplinary field of studyPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets – degree program, in some North American universities, offering integrated studies in the disciplines of ecology and evolutionary biology.
  • Effective evolutionary time – Hypothesis offering a causal explanation of diversity gradients – hypothesis that attempts to explain gradients, in particular latitudinal gradients, in species diversity. It was originally named "time hypothesis".
  • Evolutionary acquisition of neural topologies – Method that evolves both the topology and weights of artificial neural networks
  • Evolutionary anachronism – Attributes of living species that arose due to coevolution with other now-extinct species
  • Evolutionary approaches to depression
  • Evolutionary argument against naturalism – Philosophical argument
  • Evolutionary art – Art generated by an iterated process
  • Evolutionary baggage – Currently disadvantageous part of the genome – part of the genome of a population that was advantageous in past individuals but is disadvantageous under the pressures exerted by natural selection today.
  • Evolutionary Bioinformatics – Peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on computational biology in the study of evolution – peer-reviewed open access scientific journal focusing on computational biology in the study of evolution.
  • Evolutionary Enlightenment – American spiritual teacher – philosophy that mixes teachings about Enlightenment from Eastern traditions with a Western scientific understanding of evolution.
  • Evolutionary Humanism – Life stance that embraces human reason, secular ethics, and philosophical naturalismPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets –
  • Evolutionary informatics – Pseudoscientific argument for the existence of GodPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets – subfield of informatics addressing the practice of information processing in, and the engineering of information systems for, the study of biological evolution, as well as the study of information in evolutionary systems, natural and artificial.
  • Evolutionary landscape – Metaphor used to visualize the processes of evolution – metaphor; (construct) used to think about and visualize the processes of evolution (e.g. natural selection and genetic drift) acting on a biological entity ( e.g., a gene, protein, population, species). This entity can be viewed as searching or moving through a search space. For example, the search space of a gene would be all possible nucleotide sequences. The search space is only part of an evolutionary landscape. The final component is the "y-axis," which is usually fitness.
  • Evolutionary Principle
  • Evolutionary Synthetic Biology
  • Extinction – Termination of a taxon by the death of its last member
    • Extinction event – Widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth – widespread and rapid decrease in the amount of life on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp reduction in the diversity and abundance of macroscopic life. Also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis.
    • Human extinction – Hypothetical end of the human species – hypothesized end of the human species. Various scenarios have been discussed in science, popular culture and religion (see end time)
    • Local extinction – Termination of a taxon in a region which it previously inhabited (extirpation) – condition of a species (or other taxon) that ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinction can be reversed by reintroduction of the species to the area from other locations; wolf reintroduction is an example of this.* International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology –
  • MEGA, Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis – Software for statistical analysis of molecular evolutionPages displaying short descriptions of redirect targets – freely available software for conducting statistical analysis of molecular evolution and for constructing phylogenetic trees.
  • Transitional fossil – Type of fossilized remains

References

  1. ^ "What is biodiversity?". United Nations Environment Programme, World Conservation Monitoring Centre.
  2. Gaston, Kevin J. (11 May 2000). "Global patterns in biodiversity". Nature. 405 (6783): 220–227. doi:10.1038/35012228. PMID 10821282.
  3. Field, Richard; Hawkins, Bradford A.; Cornell, Howard V.; Currie, David J.; Diniz-Filho, J. Alexandre F.; Guégan, Jean-François; Kaufman, Dawn M.; Kerr, Jeremy T.; Mittelbach, Gary G.; Oberdorff, Thierry; O’Brien, Eileen M.; Turner, John R. G. (1 January 2009). "Spatial species-richness gradients across scales: a meta-analysis". Journal of Biogeography. 36 (1): 132–147. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2008.01963.x.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. K. Rohde: Latitudinal gradients in species diversity and their causes. I. A review of the hypotheses explaining the gradients. Biologisches Zentralblatt 97, 393-403, 1978a.
  5. K. Rohde: Latitudinal gradients in species diversity and their causes. II. Marine parasitological evidence for a time hypothesis. Biologisches Zentralblatt 97, 405-418, 1978b.
  6. Appenzeller, T. 1999. "Test tube evolution catches time in a bottle." Science. 284: 2108-2110
  7. Wright, Sewall (1932) The Roles of Mutation, Inbreeding, Crossbreeding, and Selection in Evolution. Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress of Genetics 1: 356-366
  8. Wright, Sewall (1988) Surfaces of Selective Value Revisited. The American Naturalist 131(1):115-123
  9. Lee, Carol E. & Gelebiuk, Gregory W. (2008) Evolutionary origins of invasive populations. "Evolutionary Applications" 1: 427-448.

External links

General information
Experiments concerning the process of biological evolution
Online lectures
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