The evolution of species can be tough to understand, mainly because it takes place over long periods of time. Evolution was discovered independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the mid-19th century and quickly became a cornerstone of science. Many previously unexplained observations in biology were understood when viewed in the lens of evolution.
In this article, I’m going to define some of the basic terms of evolution, then discuss a concrete example that has been observed by scientists. Let’s go over the fundamentals!
What is Evolution?
In evolution, we are concerned with populations of species. These are groups of the same type of species that can breed together. Within a population, there is variation. Variation comes from different sets of genes inherited from parents, and mutation in genes. This is commonly referred to as “descent with modification.” You can observe this in any group of humans, none of them are exactly the same. An important thing to remember with evolution is that an individual organism does not evolve, only a population of species can evolve over time.
Now we have a population of a species with variation among its members, but how does it evolve? In nature, every population is undergoing a process called natural selection. There are pressures to find food, fend…
