How do species evolve

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Lifting the taboo regarding teleology and anthropomorphism in biology education—heretical suggestions. Download references. You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar. Correspondence to T. Ryan Gregory. Reprints and Permissions. Gregory, T. Evo Edu Outreach 2, — Download citation. Received : 14 March Accepted : 16 March Published : 09 April Issue Date : June In contrast with microevolution, macroevolution reflects large-scale changes at the species level, which result from the accumulation of numerous small changes on the microevolutionary scale.

An example of macroevolution is the evolution of a new species. One mechanism that drives evolution is natural selection, which is a process that increases the frequency of advantageous alleles in a population. Natural selection results in organisms that are more likely to survive and reproduce. Another driving force behind evolution is genetic drift, which describes random fluctuations in allele frequencies in a population. Occasionally a gene changes accidentally.

That's called a mutation. The changed gene is passed on to the next generation. Most mutations are bad, but some of them make the organism more successful in its life. Organisms that inherit that favorable new gene are likely to become more abundant than others of the species.

Sometimes the population of a species becomes separated into two areas, by geography or by climate. Then the two groups no longer breed with each other. The two groups then slowly change by natural selection.

Each group changes in different ways. Eventually, the two groups are so different that they can't breed to produce offspring any more. They have become two different species. The Rights Holder for media is the person or group credited. Tyson Brown, National Geographic Society.

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Any interactives on this page can only be played while you are visiting our website. You cannot download interactives. In the mids, Charles Darwin famously described variation in the anatomy of finches from the Galapagos Islands.

Alfred Russel Wallace noted the similarities and differences between nearby species and those separated by natural boundaries in the Amazon and Indonesia. Independently they came to the same conclusion: over generations, natural selection of inherited traits could give rise to new species. Use the resources below to teach the theory of evolution in your classroom. Learn how early humans evolved from Homo habilis, to Homo erectus, to Homo sapiens and developed basic survival tools.