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Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology that analyzes the four mechanisms of evolution: natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, and gene flow. The purpose of evolutionary biology is to observe the diversity of life on Earth. The idea of natural selection was first researched by Charles Darwin as he studied bird beaks. The discipline of evolutionary biology emerged through what Julian Huxley called the modern synthesis of understanding, from previously unrelated fields of biological research, such as genetics and ecology, systematics, and paleontology. Huxley was able to take what Charles Darwin discovered and elaborate to build on his understandings.
The investigational range of current research has widened to encompass the genetic architecture of adaptation, molecular evolution, and the different forces that contribute to evolution, such as sexual selection, genetic drift, and biogeography. The newer field of evolutionary developmental biology ("evo-devo") investigates how embryogenesis is controlled, thus yielding a wider synthesis that integrates developmental biology with the fields of study covered by the earlier evolutionary synthesis. (Full article...)
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In evolutionary biology, mimicry is the evolved resemblance of an organism to something else, often another organism of a different species. Mimicry may evolve between different species, or between individuals of the same species. In the simplest case, as in Batesian mimicry, a mimic resembles a model, so as to deceive a dupe, all three being of different species. A Batesian mimic, such as a hoverfly, is harmless, while its model, such as a wasp, is harmful, and is avoided by the dupe, such as an insect-eating bird. Birds hunt by sight, so the mimicry in that case is visual, but in other cases mimicry may make use of any of the senses. Most types of mimicry, including Batesian, are deceptive, as the mimics are not harmful, but Müllerian mimicry, where different harmful species resemble each other, is honest, as when species of wasps and of bees all have genuinely aposematic warning coloration. More complex types may be bipolar, involving only two species, such as when the model and the dupe are the same; this occurs for example in aggressive mimicry, where a predator in wolf-in-sheep's-clothing style resembles its prey, allowing it to hunt undetected. Mimicry is not limited to animals; in Pouyannian mimicry, an orchid flower is the mimic, resembling a female bee, its model; the dupe is the male bee of the same species, which tries to copulate with the flower, enabling it to transfer pollen, so the mimicry is again bipolar. In automimicry, another bipolar system, model and mimic are the same, as when blue lycaenid butterflies have 'tails' or eyespots on their wings that mimic their own heads, misdirecting predator dupes to strike harmlessly. Many other types of mimicry exist. (Full article...)
The following are images from various evolutionary biology-related articles on Wikipedia.
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Image 1Speciation via polyploidy: A diploid cell undergoes failed meiosis, producing diploid gametes, which self-fertilize to produce a tetraploid zygote. In plants, this can effectively be a new species, reproductively isolated from its parents, and able to reproduce. (from Speciation)
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Image 2Reinforcement assists speciation by selecting against hybrids. (from Speciation)
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Image 3A red tulip exhibiting a partially yellow petal due to a somatic mutation in a cell that formed that petal (from Mutation)
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Image 4Types of small-scale mutations (from Mutation)
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Image 5The distribution of fitness effects (DFE) of mutations in vesicular stomatitis virus. In this experiment, random mutations were introduced into the virus by site-directed mutagenesis, and the fitness of each mutant was compared with the ancestral type. A fitness of zero, less than one, one, more than one, respectively, indicates that mutations are lethal, deleterious, neutral, and advantageous. (from Mutation)
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Image 6Five types of chromosomal mutations (from Mutation)
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Image 7A mutation has caused this moss rose plant to produce flowers of different colours. This is a somatic mutation that may also be passed on in the germline. (from Mutation)
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Image 8Selection of disease-causing mutations, in a standard table of the genetic code of amino acids (from Mutation)
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Image 9Gaur (Indian bison) can interbreed with domestic cattle. (from Speciation)
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Image 12Embryology theories of Ernst Haeckel, who argued for recapitulation of evolutionary development in the embryo, and Karl Ernst von Baer's epigenesis (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 13African pygmy kingfisher, showing coloration shared by all adults of that species to a high degree of fidelity. (from Speciation)
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Image 15Three major single-chromosome mutations: deletion (1), duplication (2) and inversion (3). (from Mutation)
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Image 16Among the centipedes, all members of the Geophilomorpha are constrained by a developmental bias to have an odd number of segments, whether as few as 27 or as many as 191. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 17Point mutations classified by impact on protein (from Mutation)
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Image 18A. Lancelet (a chordate), B. Larval tunicate, C. Adult tunicate. Kowalevsky saw that the notochord (1) and gill slits (5) are shared by tunicates and vertebrates. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 19Rhagoletis pomonella, the hawthorn fly, appears to be in the process of sympatric speciation. (from Speciation)
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Image 20Phyletic gradualism, above, consists of relatively slow change over geological time. Punctuated equilibrium, bottom, consists of morphological stability and rare, relatively rapid bursts of evolutionary change. (from Speciation)
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Image 21Gene product distributions along the long axis of the early embryo of a fruit fly (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 22This figure shows a simplified version of loss-of-function, switch-of-function, gain-of-function, and conservation-of-function mutations. (from Mutation)
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Image 23Turing's 1952 paper explained mathematically how patterns such as stripes and spots, as in the giant pufferfish, may arise, without molecular evidence. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 24Homologous Hox genes in such different animals as insects and vertebrates control embryonic development and hence the form of adult bodies. These genes have been highly conserved through hundreds of millions of years of evolution. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 25Gap genes in the fruit fly are switched on by genes such as bicoid, setting up stripes across the embryo which start to pattern the body's segments. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 27The structure of a eukaryotic protein-coding gene. A mutation in the protein coding region (red) can result in a change in the amino acid sequence. Mutations in other areas of the gene can have diverse effects. Changes within regulatory sequences (yellow and blue) can effect transcriptional and translational regulation of gene expression. (from Mutation)
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Image 30Prodryas persephone, a Late Eocene butterfly (from Mutation)
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Image 31The lac operon. Top: repressed. Bottom: active. (1) RNA Polymerase, (2) Repressor, (3) Promoter, (4) Operator, (5) Lactose, (6–8) protein-encoding genes, controlled by the switch, that cause lactose to be digested. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
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Image 32The pax-6 gene controls development of eyes of different types across the animal kingdom. (from Evolutionary developmental biology)
The passenger pigeon, one of several species of extinct birds, was hunted to extinction over the course of a few decades.
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Evolutionary biology Subfields of evolutionary biology History of evolutionary biology Evolutionary biology literature Evolutionary biology terminology Evolutionary biology concepts Evolution of the biosphere Evolutionarily significant biological phenomena Extended evolutionary synthesis Modern synthesis (20th century) Most recent common ancestors Evolutionary biology societies
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