BIO120H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Phylogenetic Tree, Macroevolution, Microevolution
11 Sep 2018
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Bio120 lecture 1: introduction to evolutionary biology 10th september 2018. Living organisms change slowly over a period of time. Adaptations are the result of natural selection. The process of speciation or the formation of new species by branching of lineages has given rise to biodiversity. This is the reason why all species have common ancestry. Biodiversity is defined as the different types of living organisms living in a ecosystem or on the planet. This the diversity we observe amongst species in a certain habitat. Adaptations are traits that allow an organism to thrive in their habitat to reach reproductive maturity in order to allow succession of its species and thus passing on these traits to future generations. Down the tree, we observe a common ancestry. The phylogenetic tree shows the branching off of species and the formation of a new species from a common ancestor. Evolutionary biology is split into macroevolution (big scale changes) and microevolution (small changes)
