15 Of The Best Documentaries On Evolution Site

The Berkeley Evolution Site

The Berkeley site has resources that can assist students and teachers to understand and teach about evolution. The resources are organized into different learning paths like "What does T. rex look like?"

Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection explains how creatures who are better equipped to adapt biologically to changing environment survive over time and those that don't end up becoming extinct. Science is all about the process of biological evolutionary change.

What is Evolution?

The term "evolution" could be used to refer to a variety of nonscientific meanings. For example, it can mean "progress" and "descent with modifications." It is an academic term that is used to describe the process of changing traits over time in organisms or species. This change is based in biological terms on natural drift and selection.

Evolution is one of the fundamental tenets of modern biology. It is a theory that has been verified by thousands of scientific tests. Evolution doesn't deal with spiritual beliefs or God's presence, unlike many other theories of science, such as the Copernican or germ theory of diseases.

Early evolutionists, such as Erasmus Darwin (Charles’s grandfather) and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck believed that certain physical characteristics were predetermined to change in a gradual manner over time. This was referred to as the "Ladder of Nature" or scala Naturae. Charles Lyell first used this term in 1833 in his Principles of Geology.

Darwin presented his theory of evolution in his book On the Origin of Species which was written in the early 1800s. It claims that different species of organisms share the same ancestry, which can be traced through fossils and other lines of evidence. This is the current perspective of evolution, which is supported by a variety of disciplines which include molecular biology.

Scientists aren't sure how organisms evolved but they are sure that natural selection and genetic drift are responsible for the evolution of life. People with desirable traits are more likely than others to survive and reproduce. These individuals then pass their genes to the next generation. Over time the gene pool slowly changes and develops into new species.

Some scientists employ the term"evolution" in reference to large-scale change, such as the evolution of one species from an ancestral one. Other scientists, such as population geneticists, define evolution more broadly by referring to the net variation in the frequency of alleles over generations. Both definitions are accurate and palatable, but some scientists argue that allele-frequency definitions miss important aspects of the evolutionary process.

Origins of Life

The emergence of life is an essential step in the process of evolution. This occurs when living systems begin to evolve at the micro level, within individual cells, for example.

The origins of life is one of the major topics in various disciplines such as biology, chemistry and geology. The nature of life is an area of interest in science because it is a challenge to the theory of evolution. It is often referred to "the mystery" of life or "abiogenesis."

Traditionally, the notion that life can emerge from nonliving things is known as spontaneous generation, or "spontaneous evolution." This was a common belief before Louis Pasteur's experiments proved that it was impossible for the development of life to be a result of a purely natural process.

Many scientists still believe that it is possible to transition from nonliving materials to living. The conditions necessary to create life are difficult to replicate in a laboratory. Researchers who are interested in the evolution and origins of life are also keen to understand the physical properties of the early Earth as well as other planets.

In addition, the development of life is dependent on an intricate sequence of chemical reactions that can't be predicted based on basic physical laws alone. These include the reading of long information-rich molecules (DNA or RNA) into proteins that perform functions, and the replication of these intricate molecules to create new DNA or sequences of RNA. These chemical reactions can be compared to the chicken-and-egg issue that is the emergence and growth of DNA/RNA, the protein-based cell machinery, is essential for the beginning of life. But without life, the chemistry required to create it does appear to work.

Research in the area of abiogenesis requires cooperation among scientists from various fields. This includes prebiotic chemists astrobiologists, planetary scientists geophysicists, geologists, and geophysicists.

Evolutionary Changes

The term "evolution" is typically used today to describe the accumulated changes in the genetic characteristics of an entire population over time. These changes can result from adaptation to environmental pressures, as discussed in the entry on Darwinism (see the entry on Charles Darwin for background) or natural selection.

The latter is a mechanism that increases the frequency of those genes that confer an advantage in survival over others, resulting in an ongoing change in the overall appearance of a particular population. The specific mechanisms that cause these evolutionary changes include mutation and reshuffling of genes in sexual reproduction, and gene flow between populations.

While reshuffling and mutations of genes happen in all organisms and the process by which beneficial mutations become more common is known as natural selection. This occurs because, as mentioned above, those individuals with the advantageous trait are likely to have a higher reproduction rate than those who do not have it. Over many generations, this differential in the numbers of offspring produced can result in an inclination towards a shift in the average number of beneficial traits in a population.

This can be seen in the evolution of different beak shapes for finches from the Galapagos Islands.  weblink  have developed these beaks so that they can eat more easily in their new habitat. These changes in shape and form can aid in the creation of new organisms.

The majority of changes are caused by a single mutation, although sometimes multiple occur at once. Most of these changes can be neutral or even harmful, but a small number can have a beneficial impact on survival and reproduction with increasing frequency as time passes. Natural selection is a process that could result in the accumulation of change over time that eventually leads to the creation of a new species.

Many people confuse the concept of evolution with the idea that the traits inherited from parents can be changed through conscious choice or use and abuse, a concept known as soft inheritance. This is a misunderstood understanding of the nature of evolution and of the actual biological processes that cause it. It is more accurate to say that the process of evolution is a two-step independent process, which involves the forces of natural selection as well as mutation.

Origins of Humans

Modern humans (Homo sapiens) evolved from primates, a group of mammals that includes gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos. The earliest human fossils prove that our ancestors were bipeds. They were walkers with two legs. Biological and genetic similarities indicate that we share an intimate relationship with chimpanzees. In actual fact we are the closest related to the chimpanzees within the Pan genus which includes bonobos and pygmy chimpanzees. The last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees was 8 to 6 million years old.

Humans have evolved a variety of characteristics over time, including bipedalism, the use of fire and advanced tools. It's only within the last 100,000 years that we have developed the majority of our essential characteristics. These include language, large brain, the ability to build and use complex tools, and cultural diversity.

Evolution occurs when genetic changes allow members of a group to better adapt to their environment. Natural selection is the process that drives this change. Certain characteristics are more desirable than others. Those with the better adaptations are more likely to pass their genes to the next generation. This is the way all species evolve and is the basis of the theory of evolution.

Scientists refer to this as the "law of natural selection." The law states that species which have a common ancestor, tend to develop similar traits over time. This is because those characteristics make it easier for them to live and reproduce in their environment.

Every organism has an molecule called DNA that holds the information necessary to direct their growth. The DNA molecule consists of base pairs that are spirally arranged around phosphate molecules and sugar molecules. The sequence of bases within each strand determines phenotype, or the individual's characteristic appearance and behavior. The variations in a population are caused by mutations and reshufflings of 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. Although there are some differences, these fossils all support the hypothesis that modern humans first came into existence in Africa. The fossil and genetic evidence suggests that the first humans left Africa and migrated to Asia and Europe.