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VCE Biology: Sample teaching plan
VCE Biology: Sample teaching plan

...  Reporting/poster write-up phase  Evolution card game: dog selection pressures Changes in the genetic makeup of a population (qualitative treatment of gene pool changes; evolutionary processes; selective  Group presentation: student group selection of NOVA online or breeding) www.nclark.net/Evolu ...
file - MabryOnline.org
file - MabryOnline.org

... which Pangaea split apart. 31. The forelimbs of a bird and a mammal are examples of ____________________ structures. 32. Similarities in the early development of turtles and rats suggest that these animals share a common ____________________. 33. Living things first appeared during the geologic time ...
Evolution and Natural Selection
Evolution and Natural Selection

... from interaction between individuals that vary in heritable traits and their environment • Natural selection produces an increase over time in adaptation of organisms to their environment • If an environment changes over time, natural selection may result in adaptation to these new conditions ...
Darwin article questions
Darwin article questions

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Ch. 15.3 zebra
Ch. 15.3 zebra

...  Occurs when a small sample of a population settles in a location separated from the rest of the population  Alleles that were uncommon in the original population might be common in the new population. Amish population (sixth finger) ...
Evolution: The Public`s Problem, and the Scientists`
Evolution: The Public`s Problem, and the Scientists`

... that occurred more than half a billion years ago (the “Cambrian explosion”) becomes much more understandable. Phenotypic plasticity, a relatively common property of developing organisms, which was appreciated by many 19th century biologists and which provided the basis for JeanBaptiste Lamarck’s (ge ...
Molecular Biologists
Molecular Biologists

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... common than in the previous generation. All of these mechanisms can cause changes in the frequencies of genes in populations, and so all of them are mechanisms of evolutionary change. However, natural selection and genetic drift cannot operate unless there is genetic variation — that is, unless some ...
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Ch. 5 PowerPoint

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Lecture 1 - BlakeMathys.com
Lecture 1 - BlakeMathys.com

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Body parts are considered homologous if they have
Body parts are considered homologous if they have

natural selection
natural selection

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Evolution
Evolution

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Chapter 14, 15, and 17
Chapter 14, 15, and 17

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The Gene Pool and Speciation
The Gene Pool and Speciation

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Key Evolution Vocabulary Words
Key Evolution Vocabulary Words

... adapt to environmental change. Fossil: evidence of past life preserved in rock. Fossil record: the complete body of fossils that shows how species and ecosystems change over time. Fossilized: the process of becoming a fossil Index fossil: a fossil found in a narrow time range but widely distributed ...
Ch 16 RNO
Ch 16 RNO

... What is biogeography? Describe the two biogeographical patterns that are significant to Darwin’s theory of evolution. How do fossils help to document the descent of modern species from ancient ancestors? (see Fig. 16-13) Describe homologous structures and how there characteristics are used to establ ...
Chapter 5 - life.illinois.edu
Chapter 5 - life.illinois.edu

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Darwin - Integrative Biology
Darwin - Integrative Biology

... See Fig. 22.2 for major milestones and section below on the fossil record. The idea of evolution, that living organisms have evolved from other organisms no longer alive on earth, had been proposed by a number of researchers before 1858 when Darwin and Wallace proposed the mechanism, natural selecti ...
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Agents of Change
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BIOLOGY 20
BIOLOGY 20

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Natural Selection
Natural Selection

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Introduction to evolution



Evolution is the process of change in all forms of life over generations, and evolutionary biology is the study of how evolution occurs. Biological populations evolve through genetic changes that correspond to changes in the organisms' observable traits. Genetic changes include mutations, which are caused by damage or replication errors in an organism's DNA. As the genetic variation of a population drifts randomly over generations, natural selection gradually leads traits to become more or less common based on the relative reproductive success of organisms with those traits.The age of the Earth is about 4.54 billion years old. The earliest undisputed evidence of life on Earth dates at least from 3.5 billion years ago, during the Eoarchean Era after a geological crust started to solidify following the earlier molten Hadean Eon. There are microbial mat fossils found in 3.48 billion-year-old sandstone discovered in Western Australia. Other early physical evidence of a biogenic substance is graphite in 3.7 billion-year-old metasedimentary rocks discovered in western Greenland. More than 99 percent of all species, amounting to over five billion species, that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct. Estimates on the number of Earth's current species range from 10 million to 14 million, of which about 1.2 million have been documented and over 86 percent have not yet been described.Evolution does not attempt to explain the origin of life (covered instead by abiogenesis), but it does explain how the extremely simple early lifeforms evolved into the complex ecosystem that we see today. Based on the similarities between all present-day organisms, all life on Earth originated through common descent from a last universal ancestor from which all known species have diverged through the process of evolution. All individuals have hereditary material in the form of genes that are received from their parents, then passed on to any offspring. Among offspring there are variations of genes due to the introduction of new genes via random changes called mutations or via reshuffling of existing genes during sexual reproduction. The offspring differs from the parent in minor random ways. If those differences are helpful, the offspring is more likely to survive and reproduce. This means that more offspring in the next generation will have that helpful difference and individuals will not have equal chances of reproductive success. In this way, traits that result in organisms being better adapted to their living conditions become more common in descendant populations. These differences accumulate resulting in changes within the population. This process is responsible for the many diverse life forms in the world.The forces of evolution are most evident when populations become isolated, either through geographic distance or by other mechanisms that prevent genetic exchange. Over time, isolated populations can branch off into new species.The majority of genetic mutations neither assist, change the appearance of, nor bring harm to individuals. Through the process of genetic drift, these mutated genes are neutrally sorted among populations and survive across generations by chance alone. In contrast to genetic drift, natural selection is not a random process because it acts on traits that are necessary for survival and reproduction. Natural selection and random genetic drift are constant and dynamic parts of life and over time this has shaped the branching structure in the tree of life.The modern understanding of evolution began with the 1859 publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. In addition, Gregor Mendel's work with plants helped to explain the hereditary patterns of genetics. Fossil discoveries in paleontology, advances in population genetics and a global network of scientific research have provided further details into the mechanisms of evolution. Scientists now have a good understanding of the origin of new species (speciation) and have observed the speciation process in the laboratory and in the wild. Evolution is the principal scientific theory that biologists use to understand life and is used in many disciplines, including medicine, psychology, conservation biology, anthropology, forensics, agriculture and other social-cultural applications.
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