Evolutionary biology
From The Book of THoTH (Leaves of Wisdom)
Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology concerned with the origin and descent of species, as well as their change, multiplication, and diversity over time. One who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist, or less formally, an evolutionist.
Evolutionary biology is an interdisciplinary field because it includes scientists from a wide range of both field and lab oriented disciplines. For example, it generally includes scientists who may have a specialist training in particular organisms such as mammalogy, ornithology, or herpetology, but use those organisms as case studies to answer general questions in evolution. It also generally includes paleontologists and geologists who use fossils to answer questions about the tempo and mode of evolution, as well as theoreticians in areas such as population genetics. In the 1990s developmental biology made a re-entry into evolutionary biology from its initial exclusion from the modern synthesis through the study of evolutionary developmental biology.
Its findings feed strongly into new disciplines that study mankind's sociocultural evolution and evolutionary behavior. Evolutionary biology's frameworks of ideas and conceptual tools are now finding application in the study of a range of subjects from computing to nanotechnology.
Artificial life is a subfield of Bioinformatics that attempts to model, or even recreate, the evolution of organisms as described by evolutionary biology. Usually this is done through mathematics and computer models.
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History
Evolutionary biology as an academic discipline in its own right emerged as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s. It was not until the 1970s and 1980s, however, that a significant number of universities had departments that specifically included the term evolutionary biology in their titles. In the United States, as a result of the rapid growth of molecular and cell biology, many universities have split (or aggregated) their biology departments into molecular and cell biology-style departments and ecology and evolutionary biology-style departments (which often have subsumed older departments in paleontology, zoology and the like).
Microbiology has recently developed into an evolutionary discipline. It was originally ignored due to the paucity of morphological traits and the lack of a species concept in microbiology. Now, evolutionary researchers are taking advantage our extensive understanding of microbial physiology, the ease of microbial genomics, and the quick generation time of some microbes to answer evolutionary questions. Similar features have led to progress in viral evolution, particularly for bacteriophage.
Notable evolutionary biologists
Notable contributors to evolutionary biology include:
- Charles Darwin
- James F. Crow
- Richard D. Alexander
- Theodosius Dobzhansky
- Niles Eldredge
- R.A. Fisher
- Stephen Jay Gould
- J.B.S. Haldane
- Ernst Haeckel
- W.D. "Bill" Hamilton
- Daniel Janzen
- Motoo Kimura
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
- Richard Levins
- Richard Lewontin
- Gustave Malécot
- Pierre Louis Maupertuis
- Ernst Mayr
- John Maynard Smith
- Robert Trivers
- Alfred Russel Wallace
- August Weismann
- George C. Williams
- Allan Wilson
- Edward Osborne Wilson
- Sewall Wright
- Carl Woese
Evolutionary biologists known primarily for their science popularization:
- Richard Dawkins
- Steve Jones
- Kenneth R. Miller
Notable popularizers of evolution whose research isn't primarily concerned with evolutionary biology include:
- Daniel Dennett
- Greg Graffin
- Steven Pinker
- Matt Ridley
- Carl Sagan
- Peter Atkins
Bibliography
Textbooks
- Douglas J. Futuyma, Evolutionary Biology (3rd Edition), Sinauer Associates (1998) ISBN 0878931899
- Douglas J. Futuyma, Evolution, Sinauer Associates (2005) ISBN 0878931872
- Mark Ridley, Evolution (3rd edition), Blackwell (2003) ISBN 1405103450
- Scott R. Freeman and Jon C. Herron, Evolutionary Analysis, Prentice Hall (2003) ISBN 0131018590
- Michael R. Rose and Laurence D. Mueller, Evolution and Ecology of the Organism, Prentice Hall (2005) ISBN 0130104043
- Monroe W. Strickberger, Evolution (3rd Edition), Jones & Bartlett Publishers (2000) ISBN 0763710660
Notable monographs and other works
- Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1809) Philosophie Zoologique
- Charles Darwin (1859) The Origin of Species
- Charles Darwin (1871) The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
- R.A. Fisher (1930) The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection
- J. B. S. Haldane (1932) The Causes of Evolution
- Ernst Mayr (1941) Systematics and the Origin of Species
- Susumu Ohno (1970) Evolution by gene duplication
- Motoo Kimura (1983) The Neutral Theory of Molecular Evolution
Topics in evolutionary biology
- Foster's rule
- Muller's ratchet
- Mutational meltdown
- Fitness landscape
- List of other evolutionary biology topics
External links
- Mystery of color vision and fundamental questions in philosophy About evolution of color vsion and knowledge
- Mystery of beauty sense and evolution of needs About evolution of beauty sense, colorful feather of birds, and human needs
| Template:Edit Basic topics in evolutionary biology
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| Processes of evolution: adaptation - evidence - macroevolution - microevolution - speciation |
| Mechanisms: selection - genetic drift - gene flow - mutation |
| Modes: anagenesis - catagenesis - cladogenesis |
| History: History of evolutionary thought - Charles Darwin - The Origin of Species - modern evolutionary synthesis |
| Subfields: population genetics - ecological genetics - human evolution - molecular evolution - phylogenetics - systematics - evo-devo |
| List of evolutionary biology topics | Timeline of evolution | Timeline of human evolution |
