10 Undeniable Reasons People Hate Evolution Site
The Academy's Evolution Site
The concept of biological evolution is among the most fundamental concepts in biology. The Academies have been for a long time involved in helping those interested in science understand the concept of evolution and how it permeates all areas of scientific research.
This site provides a wide range of sources for students, teachers, and general readers on evolution. It contains important video clips from NOVA and WGBH's science programs on DVD.
Tree of Life
The Tree of Life, an ancient symbol, symbolizes the interconnectedness of all life. It is a symbol of love and harmony in a variety of cultures. It also has many practical applications, like providing a framework for understanding the evolution of species and how they respond to changes in environmental conditions.
Early attempts to represent the biological world were founded on categorizing organisms on their physical and metabolic characteristics. These methods, based on the sampling of different parts of living organisms or sequences of short fragments of their DNA, significantly increased the variety that could be represented in a tree of life2. These trees are largely composed by eukaryotes and the diversity of bacterial species is greatly underrepresented3,4.
By avoiding the necessity for direct experimentation and observation, genetic techniques have allowed us to depict the Tree of Life in a much more accurate way. We can construct trees using molecular methods like the small-subunit ribosomal gene.
The Tree of Life has been dramatically expanded through genome sequencing. However there is a lot of biodiversity to be discovered. This is especially true of microorganisms that are difficult to cultivate and are often only represented in a single specimen5. A recent study of all known genomes has produced a rough draft of the Tree of Life, including many bacteria and archaea that have not been isolated and which are not well understood.
The expanded Tree of Life is particularly useful for assessing the biodiversity of an area, helping to determine if certain habitats require special protection. This information can be used in many ways, including identifying new drugs, combating diseases and improving crops. It is also valuable to conservation efforts. It can help biologists identify areas that are likely to have species that are cryptic, which could have vital metabolic functions and are susceptible to human-induced change. While funds to protect biodiversity are important, the most effective way to conserve the biodiversity of the world is to equip more people in developing nations with the information they require to take action locally and encourage conservation.
Phylogeny
A phylogeny, also known as an evolutionary tree, shows the connections between groups of organisms. Scientists can build an phylogenetic chart which shows the evolution of taxonomic groups based on molecular data and morphological differences or similarities. The concept of phylogeny is fundamental to understanding evolution, biodiversity and genetics.
A basic phylogenetic Tree (see Figure PageIndex 10 ) is a method of identifying the relationships between organisms that share similar traits that evolved from common ancestral. These shared traits could be either homologous or analogous. Homologous traits are identical in their evolutionary origins while analogous traits appear similar but do not have the identical origins. Scientists organize similar traits into a grouping referred to as a clade. All members of a clade share a trait, such as amniotic egg production. They all evolved from an ancestor that had these eggs. The clades then join to form a phylogenetic branch that can determine the organisms with the closest relationship to.
To create a more thorough and accurate phylogenetic tree scientists make use of molecular data from DNA or RNA to identify the connections between organisms. This information is more precise than morphological data and provides evidence of the evolution history of an organism or group. Researchers can utilize Molecular Data to determine the evolutionary age of living organisms and discover the number of organisms that share the same ancestor.
Phylogenetic relationships can be affected by a number of factors that include the phenotypic plasticity. This is a type behavior that changes due to specific environmental conditions. This can cause a characteristic to appear more similar in one species than another, obscuring the phylogenetic signal. This problem can be mitigated by using cladistics, which incorporates an amalgamation of homologous and analogous traits in the tree.
In addition, phylogenetics helps determine the duration and rate at which speciation occurs. This information can aid conservation biologists to decide the species they should safeguard from the threat of extinction. In the end, it's the preservation of phylogenetic diversity that will lead to an ecologically balanced and complete ecosystem.
Evolutionary Theory
The main idea behind evolution is that organisms develop distinct characteristics over time based on their interactions with their environment. Several theories of evolutionary change have been proposed by a wide variety of scientists such as the Islamic naturalist Nasir al-Din al-Tusi (1201-1274) who believed that an organism would evolve slowly according to its requirements, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) who developed modern hierarchical taxonomy, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) who suggested that use or disuse of traits can cause changes that could be passed on to the offspring.
In the 1930s and 1940s, ideas from a variety of fields -- including genetics, natural selection, and particulate inheritance--came together to form the current synthesis of evolutionary theory which explains how evolution is triggered by the variations of genes within a population and how those variants change over time due to natural selection. This model, which includes mutations, genetic drift in gene flow, and sexual selection can be mathematically described.
Recent developments in evolutionary developmental biology have demonstrated how variation can be introduced to a species through mutations, genetic drift and reshuffling of genes during sexual reproduction and migration between populations. These processes, in conjunction with others, such as the directional selection process and 에볼루션게이밍 the erosion of genes (changes in frequency of genotypes over time), can lead towards evolution. Evolution is defined by changes in the genome over time, as well as changes in phenotype (the expression of genotypes in individuals).
Students can better understand the concept of phylogeny through incorporating evolutionary thinking in all aspects of biology. A recent study conducted by Grunspan and colleagues, for instance, showed that teaching about the evidence supporting evolution helped students accept the concept of evolution in a college biology class. For more information on how to teach evolution look up The Evolutionary Power of Biology in all Areas of Biology or Thinking Evolutionarily as a Framework for Integrating Evolution into Life Sciences Education.
Evolution in Action
Traditionally, scientists have studied evolution by looking back--analyzing fossils, comparing species, and observing living organisms. But evolution isn't a thing that happened in the past, it's an ongoing process that is taking place in the present. Bacteria transform and resist antibiotics, viruses reinvent themselves and escape new drugs, and animals adapt their behavior to the changing environment. The resulting changes are often visible.
It wasn't until the 1980s when biologists began to realize that natural selection was also in play. The reason is that different traits confer different rates of survival and reproduction (differential fitness) and are passed from one generation to the next.
In the past, 에볼루션코리아 if one particular allele, the genetic sequence that determines coloration--appeared in a population of interbreeding organisms, it might quickly become more common than the other alleles. Over time, that would mean that the number of black moths within a population could increase. The same is true for many other characteristics--including morphology and behavior--that vary among populations of organisms.
Observing evolutionary change in action is much easier when a species has a rapid generation turnover, 에볼루션 코리아 as with bacteria. Since 1988, Richard Lenski, a biologist, has been tracking twelve populations of E.coli that descend from one strain. Samples of each population have been collected frequently and more than 500.000 generations of E.coli have passed.
Lenski's work has shown that mutations can alter the rate of change and the effectiveness of a population's reproduction. It also demonstrates that evolution takes time, something that is difficult for some to accept.
Microevolution can also be seen in the fact that mosquito genes for resistance to pesticides are more prevalent in areas that have used insecticides. This is because pesticides cause an enticement that favors those who have resistant genotypes.
The rapidity of evolution has led to a greater recognition of its importance, especially in a world which is largely shaped by human activities. This includes climate change, pollution, and 에볼루션 무료체험 habitat loss that hinders many species from adapting. Understanding the evolution process can help us make smarter decisions regarding the future of our planet, as well as the lives of its inhabitants.
