evolution
Evolution is a process that results in changes in the genetic material of a population over time. Evolution reflects the adaptations of organisms to their changing environments and can result in altered genes, novel traits, and new species. Evolutionary processes depend on both changes in genetic variability and changes in allele frequencies over time.
The study of evolution can be performed on different scales. Microevolution reflects changes in DNA sequences and allele frequencies within a species over time. These changes may be due to mutations, which can introduce new alleles into a population. In addition, new alleles can be introduced in a population by gene flow, which occurs during breeding between two populations that carry unique alleles. In contrast with microevolution, macroevolution reflects large-scale changes at the species level, which result from the accumulation of numerous small changes on the microevolutionary scale. An example of macroevolution is the evolution of a new species.
One mechanism that drives evolution is natural selection, which is a process that increases the frequency of advantageous alleles in a population. Natural selection results in organisms that are more likely to survive and reproduce. Another driving force behind evolution is genetic drift, which describes random fluctuations in allele frequencies in a population. Eventually, genetic drift can cause a subpopulation to become genetically distinct from its original population. Indeed, over a long period of time, genetic drift and the accumulation of other genetic changes can result in speciation, which is the evolution of a new species.
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