What's The Fuss About Evolution Site?
The Berkeley Evolution Site
The Berkeley site has resources that can help students and educators to understand and teach about evolution. The materials are organized into optional learning paths, such as "What did T. rex taste like?"
Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection explains how over time, animals that are more adaptable to changing environments do better than those that do not become extinct. This process of biological evolution is what science is all about.
What is Evolution?
The term "evolution" can have many nonscientific meanings. For instance it could refer to "progress" and "descent with modifications." Scientifically it is a term used to describe a changing the characteristics of living organisms (or species) over time. The reason for this change is biological terms on natural selection and drift.
Evolution is a fundamental concept in modern biology. It is a theory that has been confirmed by thousands of scientific tests. It does not address the existence of God or religious beliefs in the same way as other theories in science, like the Copernican or germ theory of diseases.
Early evolutionists like Erasmus Darwin (Charles’s grandfather) and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck believed that certain physical traits were predetermined to evolve in a step-like fashion over time. They called this the "Ladder of Nature" or scala naturae. Charles Lyell used the term to describe this concept in his Principles of Geology, first published in 1833.
In the early 1800s, Darwin formulated his theory of evolution and published it in his book On the Origin of Species. It asserts that all species of organisms share a common ancestry which can be traced using fossils and other evidence. This is the current view of evolution, which is supported by numerous lines of scientific research that include molecular genetics.
While scientists don't know the exact mechanism by which organisms evolved but they are certain that the evolution of life on earth is the result of natural selection and genetic drift. People with desirable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce, and they transmit their genes to the next generation. As time passes the gene pool slowly changes and evolves into new species.
Some scientists use the term evolution in reference to large-scale changes, like the evolution of one species from an ancestral one. Other scientists, such as population geneticists, define evolution more broadly by referring to the net change in the frequency of alleles across generations. Both definitions are correct and palatable, but some scientists believe that allele-frequency definitions miss important aspects of the evolutionary process.
Origins of Life
The emergence of life is a key stage in evolution. The emergence of life occurs when living systems begin to develop at a micro level, like within cells.
The origins of life are an important issue in a variety of disciplines such as biology and chemistry. The nature of life is an area of interest in science because it challenges the theory of evolution. It is often referred to as "the mystery of life" or "abiogenesis."
Traditionally, the idea that life can arise from nonliving objects is known as spontaneous generation or "spontaneous evolution." This was a popular belief prior to Louis Pasteur's experiments showed that it was impossible for the development of life to occur by a purely natural process.
Many scientists still believe that it is possible to transition from nonliving substances to life. The conditions needed to create life are difficult to reproduce in a lab. This is why scientists studying the origins of life are also keen to understand the physical properties of the early Earth and other planets.
The growth of life is also dependent on a series of complex chemical reactions, which are not predicted by the basic physical laws. These include the transformation of long, information-rich molecules (DNA or RNA) into proteins that carry out a function and the replication of these complex molecules to produce new DNA or RNA sequences. These chemical reactions are comparable to the chicken-and-egg problem that is the emergence and growth of DNA/RNA, the protein-based cell machinery, is necessary for the beginning of life. Although without life, the chemistry needed to enable it appears to be working.
Abiogenesis research requires collaboration with scientists from different disciplines. This includes prebiotic chemists the astrobiologists, the planet scientists geophysicists, geologists, and geophysicists.
Evolutionary Changes
The term "evolution" is typically used today to describe the cumulative changes in genetic characteristics of an entire population over time. These changes can result from adaptation to environmental pressures as explained in the article on Darwinism (see the entry on Charles Darwin for background) or may result from natural selection.
This is a process that increases the frequency of genes in a species which confer an advantage in survival over other species and causes a gradual change in the appearance of a population. The specific mechanisms responsible for these evolutionary changes include mutation and reshuffling of genes in sexual reproduction, as well as gene flow between populations.
While reshuffling and mutations of genes are common in all living organisms The process through which beneficial mutations are more frequent is known as natural selection. As noted above, individuals who possess the desirable trait have a higher reproduction rate than those that do not. Over the course of several generations, this differential in the number of offspring produced can result in gradual changes in the amount of desirable traits in a population.
One good example is the growth of beak size on different species of finches on the Galapagos Islands, which have developed beaks with different shapes that allow them to easily access food in their new environment. These changes in the shape and appearance of living organisms may also help create new species.
The majority of changes are caused by one mutation, although sometimes multiple occur at the same time. The majority of these changes are neither harmful nor even detrimental to the organism, however a small portion of them could have a positive impact on survival and reproduction, thus increasing their frequency in the population over time. This is the way of natural selection, and it could, over time, produce the accumulating changes that eventually lead to the creation of a new species.
Many people mistakenly associate evolution with the concept of soft inheritance which is the notion that traits inherited from parents can be changed through deliberate choice or misuse. This is a misunderstanding of the biological processes that lead up to evolution. It is more accurate to say that the process of evolution is a two-step independent process, that is influenced by the forces of natural selection and mutation.
Origins of Humans
Humans of today (Homo sapiens) evolved from primates - a group of mammals that includes chimpanzees, gorillas, and bonobos. Our ancestors walked on two legs, as shown by the earliest fossils. Genetic and biological similarities show that we share a close relationship with the chimpanzees. In actual fact we are the most closely related to the chimpanzees within the Pan Genus that includes pygmy and bonobos and pygmy-chimpanzees. The last common human ancestor and chimpanzees was between 8 and 6 million years ago.
Humans have evolved a variety of traits throughout time including bipedalism, the use of fire, and the development of advanced tools. It's only in the last 100,000 years that we've developed the majority of our important characteristics. These include language, a large brain, the ability to construct and use sophisticated tools, and a cultural diversity.
Evolution occurs when genetic changes enable members of the group to better adapt to their environment. This adaptation is triggered by natural selection, a process whereby certain traits are favored over others. People with better adaptations are more likely to pass their genes to the next generation. This is how all species evolve and forms the foundation of the theory of evolution.
Scientists call this the "law of natural selection." The law states that species that share an ancestor will tend to develop similar traits in the course of time. This is because the traits allow them to live and reproduce in their environment.
Every organism has a DNA molecule, which contains the information needed to control their growth and development. The DNA molecule consists of base pairs that are spirally arranged around phosphate molecules and sugar molecules. 에볼루션카지노 of bases within each strand determines phenotype or the individual's unique appearance and behavior. Variations in a population can be caused by mutations and reshufflings in genetic material (known collectively as alleles).
Fossils from the first human species, Homo erectus, as well as Homo neanderthalensis have been discovered in Africa, Asia and Europe. These fossils, despite some differences in their appearance all support the hypothesis of the origins of modern humans in Africa. The evidence from fossils and genetics suggests that early humans left Africa and moved to Asia and Europe.