Evolution is any change in heritable traits like physical characteristics or behaviors over generations. It is a process wherein new species came from preexisting species. All living organisms change gradually or rapidly since they first appeared on Earth. In fact, there are various theories and patterns of evolution. Hence, we provided visual representation with an evolution concept map to fully understand what is evolution.
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What Are The Basic Concepts Of Evolution?
Natural selection is the central mechanism for the process of evolution. Here we will take a closer look at the basic concepts of evolution by natural selection. At the same time, we created an evolution concept map to visualize these concepts.
Inherited Traits and Variation
The differences in living organisms are inherited genes. Inheritance works through the replication of DNA sequences but errors may occur during this process. Changes that exist in the physical, behavioral, and physiological traits of a species influence the variation. By using a visualization of the natural selection concept map, you will most likely understand this concept.
Adaptation
Adaptation to the environment causes variation in species and diversity in a population. They evolve by becoming better suited to their environment. As they become adapted to their environment, more offspring with helpful traits in one environment will reproduce.
3 Theories Of Evolution
These are the various theories of evolution described by different contributors to the science of evolution. You may consider referring to the above illustration like Darwin’s theory of evolution concept map that will explain things clearly.
Lamarck’s Theories of Evolution
According to Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck, organisms evolve in response to their environment. His views about evolution mainly focus on the theory of inheritance of acquired inheritance. The theories of Lamarck that explain his views about evolution include: The theory of need- organisms need to change and as a response to their environment: Theory of use and disuse- it can develop a trait that is helpful and lose the useless trait. To have a clear overview, provided above is an evolution concept map a visual reference.
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection
Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection is a widely accepted theory of evolution. He believed that organisms change as a result of natural selection. He also figured out that organisms with favorable traits or with the adapted variants are most likely to survive and multiply. The helpful traits of an organism meet the changing demands presented in their new places. Have a look at the natural selection concept map visualization illustrated above.
Mutation Theory of Evolution
According to Hugo de Vries, evolution is not a continuous process. It occurs by sudden and inheritable large differences and he called this process mutation. This theory also explains that new species start to arise through a jump from one specie to another from pre-existing species in a single generation. This is contrary to Lamark and Darwin who proposed a gradual process of evolution. If you want to incorporate the illustration into your PDF document, you can download and save the evolution concept map PDF file from GitMind.
6 Patterns Of Evolution
Organisms evolutions depending on the pattern of evolution they have engaged in. Following are the patterns that contribute to their evolution.
Divergent Evolution- is the process by which closely related species accumulate differences and evolve to form new species. Organisms evolve in response to the demands in the environmental circumstances. Above is a simple evolution concept map depicting the patterns in evolution.
Convergent Evolution- it describes the process of evolution whereby different species from different ancestry acquire similar traits due to a similar environment.
Parallel Evolution- the process of evolution that emerge when organisms from the different environment in response to similar challenges in a similar manner. A review in a visual manner is presented through the evolution concept map.
Coevolution- refers to the evolutionary process in which two or more species develop similar characteristics or adaptations.
Macroevolution- a pattern of evolution that exists in large-scale changes above the level of a species. The diversifications and changes that happen in an organisms’ life history are evidence of macroevolution.
Extinction- this refers to the formation of new organisms by means of extinction. Types of extinction include background and mass extinction wherein new species come about. You may your own visual presentation of evolution patterns or human evolution concept map by editing the map.
Conclusion
Evolution is often misunderstood because of the complexity of the concepts. In this content, we provided a simplified explanation that will help you easily understand what evolution is all about. We also provided evolution concept maps to visually present evolution and help the information to sink in naturally.
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