evolution

[Bull Poopie]

What exactly is evolution? I thought evolution was the changing of a species (e.g. giraffes necks weren't as long as what they are today). I may have a narrow perspective on evolution but I want to broaden my understanding.

Poopie.

[lrh9]

I'm satisfied with the Wikipedia article.

[leo-rcc]

Evolution is the process of change in all forms of life over generations. Species are a classification, a way to determine in what branch of the evolutionary tree to put the organism. Species can change over time to form different species under certain conditions, and if the changes are such that it is no longer possible to produce fertile offspring with the original species but fertile offspring with the evolved species, we call that speciation.

This is only very brief and oversimplified, just look up DonExodus2 on youtube, he has made some interesting videos on the topic. Also Wikipedia has a introduction into evolution, that is a good start.

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

[Bull Poopie]

Thanks Leo! What about homo sapiens, can we evovle? Like morality, can that be part of evolution then? Just curious.

[krazedkat]

Arguably morality would be part of our evolution into homo-sapien (quite a social animal)...

[leo-rcc]

Thanks Leo! What about homo sapiens, can we evovle? Like morality, can that be part of evolution then? Just curious.

As a species we do evolve, we just don't have any evidence of speciation within our species. There is also no law that speciation must occur, just that it is possible. But if you look at our ancestors and the average human being now there is quite a difference. These things take a long time with organisms like humans because our generations take a lot of time. You can see evolution a lot quicker in bacteria and fruit flies because there are many generations to observe in a short time.

I can't answer your morality question.

[Bull Poopie]

Thanks again ya'll, I have a better understanding of evolution

[annatar]

What about homo sapiens, can we evovle? Like morality, can that be part of evolution then? Just curious.

Morality has its darwinian reasons, says Richard Dawkins. It should be a part of our evolution.
As far as I know domestication of animals counts as a form of evolution.
So its not necessarily needs to be a physical change But of course since I am not a biologist Its only my guess.

[The_Flying_Skeptic]

What exactly is evolution? I thought evolution was the changing of a species (e.g. giraffes necks weren't as long as what they are today). I may have a narrow perspective on evolution but I want to broaden my understanding.

Poopie.

The broadest biological definition of evolution is probably 'change in frequency of alleles in a population.'

I think it's easier to imagine evolutionary biology as a population of a species getting divided into two populations where there is no gene flow between the two populations. The lack of gene flow between the two populations, over time, leads to speciation. My definition of speciation is the event at which members of two different populations (in our case population A and population B) are so genetically different that they cannot produce offspring (parent A and parent B cannot produce offspring).

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary...ossary.php ~ best place for definition of 'gene flow' etc. IMO

[LastPoet]

Lets put this hypothesis:

Imagine we find a planet similar to earth and we send a bunch of colonists there to populate that planet, then, some misshap prevents them from communicating with earth or return. After a few milions of years, people on earth and the people on that planet would not be able to have children between themselves, or if they could, it would be a sterile hybrid. Speciation would occur if genetic transference is ceased between 2 populations. Look at the horse and the donkey, 2 different species and they can interbreed, but that offspring (the mule) is sterile, it can't have little 'mules'.