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Thursday 24 April 2014

Evolution

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution

Evolution is the change in the inherited characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including speciesindividual organisms andmolecules such as DNA and proteins.

Charles Darwin was the first to formulate a scientific argument for the theory of evolution by means of natural selection. Evolution by natural selection is a process inferred from three facts about populations: 1) more offspring are produced than can possibly survive, 2) traits vary among individuals, leading to different rates of survival and reproduction, and 3) trait differences are heritable.Thus, when members of a population die they are replaced by the progeny of parents betteradapted to survive and reproduce in the environment in which natural selection takes place. This process creates and preserves traits that are seemingly fitted for the functional roles they perform. Natural selection is the only known cause ofadaptation, but not the only known cause of evolution. Other, nonadaptive causes of evolution include mutation and genetic drift.

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