Outline of evolution

The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to evolution:

Evolution – change in heritable traits of biological organisms over generations due to natural selection, mutation, gene flow, and genetic drift. Also known as descent with modification. Over time these evolutionary processes lead to formation of new species (speciation), changes within lineages (anagenesis), and loss of species (extinction). "Evolution" is also another name for evolutionary biology, the subfield of biology concerned with studying evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth.

Fundamentals about evolution

Introduction

• Introduction to evolution – non-technical introduction
• Evolution – more technical introduction
• Evolution as fact and theory – basis for scientific acceptance as theory (well-substantiated explanation) based on fact (empirical data and objective verifiable observation)

Basic principles

• Macroevolution – change above level of species, including:
  • Speciation – evolutionary process by which new biological species arise
    • Natural speciation
      • Allopatric speciation – speciation that occurs after biological populations become isolated from each other (also known as geographic speciation)
      • Peripatric speciation – speciation that occurs in biological populations with adjacent ranges
      • Parapatric speciation – speciation that occurs in biological populations with adjacent, but not significantly overlapping ranges
      • Sympatric speciation – speciation that occurs in biological populations that inhabit the same geographic region
    • Artificial speciation
      • Animal husbandry – management and care of farm animals, typically involving selective breeding
      • Plant breeding – selective breeding of plants to produce desired characteristics
      • Genetic engineering – direct manipulation of an organism's genome using biotechnology
    • Hybrid speciation – speciation wherein hybridization between two different species leads to a new species
  • Despeciation – loss of a unique species due to combining with another previously distinct species
  • Anagenesis – changes in a lineage that result in a new morphospecies distinct in form from an ancestral species ("phyletic transformation")
  • Extinction – end of a lineage such that there are no longer living populations of a species (or other taxon)
• Microevolution – change within species or populations, due to mutation, selection (natural and artificial), gene flow, and genetic drift
  • Artificial selection – the process by which humans increase particular traits in a lineage or population by choosing which individuals have offspring together (also called Selective breeding)
  • Natural selection – differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in heritable traits (phenotype), a key mechanism of evolution
    • Sexual selection – a mode of natural selection wherein members of one gender choose mates of the other gender to mate with, resulting in distinct gender-based differences
  • Mutation – a permanent change of the genome of an organism (nucleotide sequence), a key mechanism of evolution
  • Gene flow – movement of genes from one population to another (through migration, dispersal, transport of pollen, etc.)
  • Genetic drift – change in frequency of a gene variant (allele) in a population due to random sampling

Subfields

• Biogeography – the study of distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time
• Ecological genetics – the study of genetics in natural populations
• Evolutionary biology – study of the evolutionary processes that produced the diversity of life on Earth. More specifically, it studies the descent of species, and the origin of new species.
  • Evolutionary developmental biology – the study of developmental processes to determine the ancestral relationships and discover how developmental processes evolved (informally called evo-devo)
• Evolutionary ecology – the study of ecology with explicit consideration of evolutionary histories of species, or conversely the study of evolution that incorporates an understanding of ecological interactions between the species
• Evolutionary physiology – the study of changes in functional characteristics over generations as the result of selection
• Evolutionary taxonomy – branch of biological classification that classifies organisms based on phylogenetic relationship (shared descent), progenitor-descendant relationship (serial descent), and degree of evolutionary change
• Experimental evolution – study of evolution using controlled experiments to test hypotheses and theories
• Molecular evolution – study of change in sequence composition of cellular molecules such as DNA, RNA, and proteins across generations
• Phylogenetics – study of evolutionary history, development, and relationships among groups of organisms
• Population genetics – study of distribution and change in frequency of alleles within populations
• Paleontology – study of evolution of life based on the fossil record
  • Paleovirology – study of ancient viruses based on fossil viruses
  • Timeline of paleontology – summary of key dates and events in the history of paleontology
• Systematics – study of diversification of living forms, both past and present, and relationships among living organisms through time

History

• Charles Darwin – English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory

• On the Origin of Species – work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin, considered to be foundation of evolutionary biology (published 1859)
• Caricatures of Charles Darwin and his evolutionary theory in 19th-century England – artistic depictions concerning Charles Darwin and evolutionary theory

• History of evolutionary thought – historical account of evolutionary thought from antiquity through present

• By period or event

• Evolutionary ideas of the Renaissance and Enlightenment
• Transmutation of species
• 1860 Oxford evolution debate
• The eclipse of Darwinism
• Evolutionary progress
• Scopes Trial
• Modern evolutionary synthesis, 20th century synthesis of ideas from various fields of biology (particularly genetics, cytology, systematics, botany, morphology, ecology, and paleontology) to provide the widely accepted account of evolution
• Current research

• By field

• Evolutionary developmental biology
• History of evolutionary psychology
• History of molecular evolution
• History of paleontology

• Social effect of evolutionary theory

Evolutionary theory and modelling

See also Basic principles (above)

Population genetics

• Population genetics
• Process
  • Mutation
  • Selection
    • Natural selection
      • Sexual selection
    • Artificial selection
    • Ecological selection
  • Gene flow
  • Genetic drift
    • Small population size
    • Population bottleneck
    • Founder effect
    • Coalescent theory
• Variation
  • Genetic variation
    • Genetic diversity
    • Gene frequency
    • Polymorphism (biology)
• Key concepts
  • Hardy-Weinberg law
  • Genetic linkage
  • Identity by descent
  • Linkage disequilibrium
  • Fisher's fundamental theorem
  • Neutral theory
  • Shifting balance theory
  • Price equation
  • Coefficient of relationship
  • Fitness
  • Heritability
• Effects of selection
  • Genetic hitchhiking
  • Negative selection (natural selection)
• Related topics
  • Microevolution
  • Evolutionary game theory
  • Fitness landscape
  • Genetic genealogy
  • Quantitative genetics, branch of population genetics that deals with phenotypes which vary continuously

Evolutionary phenomena

• Adaptation
• Adaptive radiation
• Coevolution
• Concerted evolution
• Convergent evolution
  • List of examples of convergent evolution
• Divergent evolution
  • Divergent evolution in animals
• Evolution of ageing
• Evolution of biological complexity
• Evolution of multicellularity
• Evolution of photosynthesis
• Evolution of sexual reproduction
• Evolutionary arms race
• Evolutionary capacitance
• Evolutionary fauna
• Evolutionary logic
• Evolutionary pressure
• Evolutionary radiation
• Evolutionary trap
• Evolutionary suicide –
• Evolvability – capacity of a system for adaptive evolution. Beneficial mutations are always rare, but if they are too rare, then adaptation cannot occur. Biological genomes are structured in ways that make beneficial changes less unlikely than they would otherwise be. Evolution has created not just fitter organisms, but populations of organisms that are better able to evolve.
• Extinction
• Fitness (biology)
  • Inclusive fitness
    • Kin selection
  • Reproductive success
• Horizontal evolution
• Horizontal gene transfer in evolution
• Human evolution (origins of society and culture)
• Inversion (evolutionary biology)
• Mosaic evolution
• Parallel evolution
• Quantum evolution
• Genetic recombination
• Recurrent evolution
• Robustness (evolution)
• Speciation

Modelling

• Emergent evolution
• Epic of evolution
• Evolution window
• Evolutionary dynamics
• Evolutionary game theory
• Evolutionary graph theory
• Evolutionary invasion analysis
• Largest-scale trends in evolution

Taxonomy, systematics, and phylogeny

Fundamentals

• Taxonomy
  • Alpha taxonomy
  • Biological classification
  • Binomial nomenclature
  • Evolutionary taxonomy
  • Catalogue of life
  • Homonym (biology)
  • Integrated Taxonomic Information System
  • International Code of Zoological Nomenclature
  • International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants
  • Linnaean taxonomy
  • Phenetics
  • Species 2000
  • Taxon
  • Taxonomic rank
  • Type (biology)
  • Species description
• Systematics – study of diversification of living forms, both past and present
  • Cladogram
  • Phylogenetic tree
• Phylogenetics
  • Cladistics
  • Computational phylogenetics
  • Common descent – how different lineages of organisms share a most recent common ancestor
  • Evidence of common descent –
  • Evolutionary grade
  • Lineage (evolution)
  • Molecular phylogenetics
  • Most recent common ancestor – most recent individual from which all organisms in a group are directly descended. It is impossible to identify the specific MRCA of a large set of individuals, but an estimate of the time at which the MRCA lived can often be given.

Basic concepts of phylogenetics

• Phylogenetic tree
• Phylogenetic network
• Long branch attraction
• Clade vs Grade
• Ghost lineage

Inference methods

• Maximum parsimony (phylogenetics)
• Minimum evolution
• Probabilistic methods
  • Maximum likelihood
  • Bayesian inference
• Distance matrices in phylogeny
  • Neighbor-joining
  • UPGMA
  • Least squares inference in phylogeny
• Three-taxon analysis

Current topics

• PhyloCode
• DNA barcoding
• Molecular phylogenetics
• Phylogenetic comparative methods
• Phylogenetic network
• Phylogenetic niche conservatism
• List of phylogenetics software
• Phylogenomics
• Phylogeography
• DNA phylogeny

Group Traits

• Symplesiomorphy
• Apomorphy
• Synapomorphy
• Autapomorphy

Group Types

• Monophyly
• Paraphyly
• Polyphyly

Evolution of biodiversity

• Biodiversity – variety of different types of life found on the Earth and the variations within species.^[1] It is a measure of the variety of organisms present in different ecosystems. This can refer to genetic variation, ecosystem variation, or species variation (number of species)^[1] within an area, biome, or planet. Terrestrial biodiversity tends to be greater near the equator,^[2] which seems to be the result of the warm climate and high primary productivity.^[3] Biodiversity is not distributed evenly on Earth. It is richest in the tropics. Marine biodiversity tends to be highest along coasts in the Western Pacific, where sea surface temperature is highest and in the mid-latitudinal band in all oceans.

Origin and evolutionary history of life

• Abiogenesis (origin of life)
• Evolutionary history of life – outline of major events during evolution of life on Earth
• Timeline of evolutionary history of life – more concise outline

Evolution of organisms

Evolution of tetrapods

• Evolution of tetrapods
  • Evolution of dinosaurs
    • Evolution of birds
  • Evolution of mammals
    • Evolution of cetaceans
    • Evolution of horses
    • Evolution of primates
      • Evolution of humans
        • Evolution of human intelligence
        • Human evolutionary genetics
        • Sexual selection in human evolution
        • Timeline of human evolution
      • Evolution of lemurs
    • Evolution of sirenians
  • Evolution of reptiles

Evolution of other animals

• Evolution of brachiopods
• Evolution of cephalopods
• Evolution of fish
• Evolution of insects
  • Evolution of butterflies
  • Peppered moth evolution
• Evolution of molluscs
• Evolution of spiders

Evolution of plants

• Evolution of plants
  • Evolutionary anachronism
  • Plant evolution
  • Plant evolutionary developmental biology
  • Timeline of plant evolution

Evolution of other taxa

• Evolution of fungi
• Evolution of viruses
  • Evolution of influenza
• E. coli long-term evolution experiment

Evolution of cells, organs, and systems

• Evolution of cells
• Evolution of flagella
• Evolution of mammalian auditory ossicles
• Evolution of nervous systems
• Evolution of snake venom
• Evolution of the brain
• Evolution of the eye
  • Evolution of color vision
  • Evolution of color vision in primates
• Immune system
• Evolution of metabolism

Evolution of molecules and genes

• Directed evolution
• Error threshold (evolution)
• Evolution of DNA
• Evolution of dominance
• Gene-centered view of evolution
• Genome evolution
• Hologenome theory of evolution
• Molecular evolution
  • History of molecular evolution
  • Neutral theory of molecular evolution
  • Nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution
• Neutral network (evolution)
• RNA-based evolution

Evolution of behaviour

• Co-operation (evolution)
• Evolution of biparental care in tropical frogs
• Evolution of emotion
• Empathy#Evolution of empathy
• Evolution of eusociality
• Monogamous pairing in animals
• Reciprocal altruism
• Reciprocity (evolution)

Evolution of other processes

• Evolution of ageing
  • Evolution of aging and mortality
  • Origin of programmed cell death
• Origin of avian flight
• Evolution of biological complexity
• Mosaic evolution
• Evolution of multicellularity
• Evolution of sexual reproduction
  • Mating types
  • Gamete differentiation/sexes
  • Sex-determination
  • Life cycles/nuclear phases

Applications in other disciplines

• Applications of evolution – practical applications in fields such as ecology, artificial intelligence, medicine, and computer science
• Biological anthropology –
• Evolutionary aesthetics –
• Evolutionary anthropology –
• Evolutionary computation –
• Evolutionary economics –
  • Kenneth Boulding's evolutionary perspective –
• Evolutionary epistemology –
• Evolutionary ethics –
• Evolutionary linguistics –
• Evolutionary medicine –
• Evolutionary neuroscience –
• Evolutionary psychology –
  • Biosocial criminology –
  • Criticism of evolutionary psychology –
  • Evolution of morality –
  • Evolution of schizophrenia –
  • Evolutionary aesthetics –
  • Evolutionary approaches to depression –
  • Evolutionary developmental psychology –
    • Evolutionary developmental psychopathology –
  • Evolutionary educational psychology –
  • Evolutionary ethics –
  • Evolutionary leadership theory –
  • Evolutionary musicology –
  • Evolutionary origin of religions –
  • Evolutionary psychology of language –
  • Evolutionary psychology of parenting –
  • Evolutionary psychology of religion –
  • Theoretical foundations of evolutionary psychology –
• Universal Darwinism –

Evolutionary issues

Controversy about evolution

• Creation–evolution controversy (outline)
• Criticism of evolutionary psychology
• Evolutionary argument against naturalism
• Level of support for evolution
• Objections to evolution
• Social effects of evolutionary theory
• Theology of creationism and evolution

Religious and philosophical views of evolution

• Acceptance of evolution by religious groups
• Atheistic evolution
• Conscious evolution
• Buddhism and evolution
• Catholic Church and evolution
• Hindu views on evolution
• Islamic views on evolution

• Ahmadiyya views on evolution

• Jewish views on evolution
• Mormon views on evolution
• Theistic evolution

Influence of evolutionary theory

• Social effects of evolutionary theory
  • Evolutionary theory and the political left –
• See also Applications in other disciplines

Publications and organizations concerning evolution

Books

• Evolution: The Modern Synthesis – book by Julian Huxley (grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley); one of the most important books of modern evolutionary synthesis, published in 1942
• The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection – book by R.A. Fisher important in modern evolutionary synthesis, first published in 1930
• Genetics and the Origin of Species – 1937 book by Ukrainian-American evolutionary biologist Theodosius Dobzhansky
• On the Origin of Species – seminal book by Charles Darwin concerning evolution by natural selection, first published in 1859
• Systematics and the Origin of Species from the Viewpoint of a Zoologist – book by zoologist and evolutionary biologist Ernst Mayr, canonical publication of modern evolutionary synthesis, first published in 1942 by Columbia University Press
• The Structure of Evolutionary Theory – technical book on macroevolutionary theory by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould
• Evolutionary Biology (textbook) –

Journals

• Evolution – monthly scientific journal published by the Society for Study of Evolution (also called International Journal of Organic Evolution)
• Evolutionary Anthropology (journal) –
• Evolutionary Psychology (journal) –
• Journal of Evolutionary Biology –
• Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research –
• Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TREE) – Elsevier journal of review articles about ecology and evolution

Organizations

• European Society for Evolutionary Biology –
• Society for the Study of Evolution –
• Evolutionary psychology research groups and centers –
• I. M. Sechenov Institute of Evolutionary Physiology and Biochemistry –
• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology –
• Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology –
• National Evolutionary Synthesis Center –
• Systematic and Evolutionary Biogeography Association –
• Evolutionary Informatics Lab –

Evolution scholars and researchers

• List of evolutionary psychologists –
• List of members of the National Academy of Sciences (Evolutionary biology) –

Prominent evolutionary biologists

• Charles Darwin
• Theodosius Dobzhansky
• Richard Dawkins
• Stephen Jay Gould
• J. B. S. Haldane
• Julian Huxley
• Thomas Henry Huxley
• Ronald Fisher
• Ernst Mayr
• Sewall Wright

See also

• Outline of biology
  • Outline of genetics

• Biogeography –
• Conscious evolution – claim that humanity has acquired the ability to choose what the species Homo sapiens becomes in the future, based on recent advancements in science, medicine, technology, psychology, sociology, and spirituality. Conscious evolution assumes that human beings may be positioned at the crest of the ongoing evolution of the universe.
• Ecology and Evolutionary Biology – degree program, in some North American universities, offering integrated studies in the disciplines of ecology and evolutionary biology.
• Effective evolutionary time – hypothesis that attempts to explain gradients, in particular latitudinal gradients, in species diversity. It was originally named "time hypothesis".^[4][5]
• Evolutionary acquisition of neural topologies –
• Evolutionary anachronism –
• Evolutionary approaches to depression –
• Evolutionary argument against naturalism –
• Evolutionary art –
• Evolutionary baggage – part of the genome of a population that was advantageous in past individuals but is disadvantageous under the pressures exerted by natural selection today.^[6]
• Evolutionary Bioinformatics – peer-reviewed open access scientific journal focusing on computational biology in the study of evolution.
• Evolutionary Enlightenment – philosophy that mixes teachings about Enlightenment from Eastern traditions with a Western scientific understanding of evolution.
• Evolutionary Humanism –
• Evolutionary informatics – subfield of informatics addressing the practice of information processing in, and the engineering of information systems for, the study of biological evolution, as well as the study of information in evolutionary systems, natural and artificial.
• Evolutionary landscape – metaphor;^[7] (construct) used to think about and visualize the processes of evolution (e.g. natural selection and genetic drift) acting on a biological entity ^[8] ( e.g., a gene, protein, population, species).^[9] This entity can be viewed as searching or moving through a search space. For example, the search space of a gene would be all possible nucleotide sequences. The search space is only part of an evolutionary landscape. The final component is the "y-axis," which is usually fitness.
• Evolutionary Principle –
• Evolutionary Synthetic Biology –
• Extinction – death of an entire species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and recover may have been lost before this point. Extinction is the end of the evolution of a species, but related branches of the taxonomy may live on.
  • Extinction event – widespread and rapid decrease in the amount of life on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp reduction in the diversity and abundance of macroscopic life. Also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis.
  • Human extinction – hypothesized end of the human species. Various scenarios have been discussed in science, popular culture and religion (see end time)
  • Local extinction (extirpation) – condition of a species (or other taxon) that ceases to exist in the chosen geographic area of study, though it still exists elsewhere. Local extinctions are contrasted with global extinctions. Local extinction can be reversed by reintroduction of the species to the area from other locations; wolf reintroduction is an example of this.* International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology –
• MEGA, Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis – freely available software for conducting statistical analysis of molecular evolution and for constructing phylogenetic trees.
• Transitional fossil –

References

External links

General information

• Evolution on In Our Time at the BBC. (listen now)
• "Evolution". New Scientist. Retrieved May 30, 2011. 
• "Evolution Resources from the National Academies". U.S. National Academy of Sciences. Retrieved May 30, 2011. 
• "Understanding Evolution: your one-stop resource for information on Evolution". University of California, Berkeley. Retrieved May 30, 2011. 
• "Evolution of Evolution – 150 Years of Darwin's "On the Origin of Species"". National Science Foundation. Retrieved May 30, 2011. 
• Human Timeline (Interactive) – Smithsonian, National Museum of Natural History (August 2016).

Experiments concerning the process of biological evolution

• Lenski RE. "Experimental Evolution – Michigan State University". Retrieved July 31, 2013. 
• Algorithms, games, and evolution, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA

Online lectures

• Carroll SB. "The Making of the Fittest". Retrieved May 30, 2011. 
• Stearns SC. "Principles of Evolution, Ecology and Behavior". Retrieved August 30, 2011.