|
With the publication of On the Origin of Species, Charles Darwin provided a mechanism for evolutionary change, which he termed natural selection. Darwin did not know about DNA or genes. It was not until the 1930s that Darwin's theory of natural selection became integrated with Mendelian genetics in what is sometimes called the "modern synthesis."
The growth of evolutionary biology has provided a natural and rigorous test of Darwin's theory. As new mathematical and technological advances have infused biology—creating new subdisciplines such as population genetics, molecular biology, and evolutionary developmental biology, also known as "evo-devo"—biologists have been able to generate testable predictions of common ancestry. Powerful experimental evidence confirms Darwin's theory in great detail.
|
Video
|
Watch this video segment from NOVA: "Judgment Day" in which Ken Miller describes the evolution of human chromosome 2.
Now watch the following video about the discovery of homeobox genes, a set of genes that produces basic body parts in all animals—which indicate that animals descended from a single common ancestor.
|
Notebook
|
Provide two examples of how recent evidence from genetics or developmental biology supports the theory of evolution.
|
