Evolution:

The word revolution means a rapid change, and the word evolution means a slow change. Slow changes in the natural world are described as biological evolution (when life forms slowly change).Evaluation occurs when there is variation of inherited traits within a population over time. Biological evolution: Biological evolution is a biological process that happens not to individuals but to groups (or populations) of living things. The time it takes for a living population to evolve depends on the reproduction time of the organism. Biological evolution takes place at the genetic level (the level of DNA molecules). It is the DNA in our cells that direct our bodies how to grow and develop. They are the instruction manuals for our body. When copying the DNA to make more cells, sometimes nature makes mistakes called mutations. Most of these mistakes are harmful to the organism, some dont seem to make any difference, while others may help the organism survive. When these mutations occur in the germ or sex cells (the sperm or egg cells) they are passed on to future generations of the organism. These mutations together with the genetic mix happening through sexual reproduction when the genes from the male are united with the genes from the female provide the variation in offspring characteristics needed for evolution to occur. Organisms produce lots of offspring, far more than can survive because of limited food and lots of predators. Because of the variation in offspring some have characteristics or traits which give them a better chance at survival. Evolution has four mechanisms:

1. Natural selection
Darwin's theory of evolution fundamentally changed the direction of future scientific thought, though it was built on a growing body of thought that began to question prior ideas about the natural world. Darwins process of natural selection has four components. 1. Variation. Organisms (within populations) exhibit individual variation in appearance and behavior. These variations may involve body size, hair color, facial markings, voice properties, or number of offspring. On the other hand, some traits show little to no variation among individualsfor example, number of eyes in vertebrates. 2. Inheritance. Some traits are consistently passed on from parent to offspring. Such traits are heritable, whereas other traits are strongly influenced by environmental conditions and show weak heritability. 3. High rate of population growth. Most populations have more offspring each year than local resources can support leading to a struggle for resources. Each generation experiences substantial mortality.

4. Differential survival and reproduction. Individuals possessing traits well suited for the struggle for local resources will contribute more offspring to the next generation. The core of Darwin's theory is natural selection, a process that occurs over successive generations and is defined as the differential reproduction of genotypes. Natural selection requires heritable variation in a given trait, and differential survival and reproduction associated with possession of that trait. Examples of natural selection are well-documented, both by observation and through the fossil record. Selection acts on the frequency of traits, and can take the form of stabilizing, directional, or diversifying selection.

2. Genetic Drift
Genetic driftalong with natural selection, mutation, and migrationis one of the basic mechanisms of evolution. In each generation, some individuals may, just by chance, leave behind a few more descendents (and genes, of course!) than other individuals. The genes of the next generation will be the genes of the lucky individuals, not necessarily the healthier or better individuals. That, in a nutshell, is genetic drift. It happens to ALL populationstheres no avoiding the vagaries of chance. Genetic drift affects the genetic makeup of the population but, unlike natural selection, through an entirely random process. So although genetic drift is a mechanism of evolution, it doesnt work to produce adaptations.

3. Biased Mutation
Mutations are random changes in the sequence of nucleotides that occur mainly during replication or during repair of damaged nucleic acids, in most organisms in the doublehelix DNA molecule. These mutations are random in direction and in the degree of their affect on the phenotype of the organism, however not in the sites of their occurrence or in their molecular nature, i.e. whether nucleotide substitution (insertion, deletion) or inversion of part of the DNA strand occurs. The type of mutation and the probability of its occurrence at a certain position in the nucleotide strand depend not only on the nucleotide that is present in the given position, but also on the nucleotides or sequence motifs that occur around this position. However, the types and frequency of mutations are also related to the mechanism of replication of the given DNA segment The process of preferential formation of certain types of mutations in certain positions in the nucleotide strand is most frequently called mutation bias. In some works, this process is also called mutation pressure; nonetheless, this term should not be used in this sense, as it has long been used by geneticists and evolutionary biologists for another phenomenon that, however, occurs at the level of populations the repeated formation of the same mutation

in the population. As a large fraction of mutations occur during reparation processes, reparation drive is mostly recognized as an independent process.

4. Gene flow

Gene flow is the transfer of alleles from one population to another population through immigration of individuals. In this example, one of the birds from population A immigrates to population B, which has less of the dominant alleles, and through mating incorporates its alleles in into the other population. In population genetics, gene flow (also known as gene migration) is the transfer of alleles or genes from one population to another. Migration into or out of a population may be responsible for a marked change in allele frequencies (the proportion of members carrying a particular variant of a gene). Immigration may also result in the addition of new genetic variants to the established gene pool of a particular species or population. There are a number of factors that affect the rate of gene flow between different populations. One of the most significant factors is mobility, as greater mobility of an individual tends to give it greater migratory potential. Animals tend to be more mobile than plants, although pollen and seeds may be carried great distances by animals or wind. Maintained gene flow between two populations can also lead to a combination of the two gene pools, reducing the genetic variation between the two groups. It is for this reason that gene flow strongly acts against speciation, by recombining the gene pools of the groups, and thus, repairing the developing differences in genetic variation that would have led to full speciation and creation of daughter species. For example, if a species of grass grows on both sides of a highway, pollen is likely to be transported from one side to the other and vice versa. If this pollen is able to fertilize the plant where it ends up and produce viable offspring, then the alleles in the pollen have effectively been able to move from the