Evolution

• Descent with modification is the idea that species change over time, give rise to new species, and share a common ancestor
• Because resources are limited in nature, organisms with heritable traits that favor survival and reproduction will tend to leave more offspring than their peers, causing the traits to increase in frequency over generations. This is known as natural selection
• If two or more species share a unique physical feature, such as a complex bone structure or a body plan, they may all have inherited this feature from a common ancestor. Physical features shared due to evolutionary history are said to be homologous
• Some physical similarities are analogous: they evolved independently in different organisms because the organisms lived in similar environments or experienced similar selective pressures. This process is called convergent evolution
• Point mutations are errors during DNA replication, repair, and recombination
• Duplication of chromosome sets occurs during meiosis
• Duplication of sequences occurs during meiosis and slippage during DNA replication
• Sequence rearrangements occur during meiosis
• Evidence for evolution exists in homology, biogeography, and fossils
• Evolutionary developmental biology is a field of biological research that compares the developmental processes of different organisms to infer how developmental processes evolved
• The evolution of vertebrates from invertebrate animals was associated with alterations in Hox genes
• Divergent evolution is the accumulation of differences between closely related populations within a species, sometimes leading to speciation