EVOLUTION - theories of, and evidence for natural selection, and the role of variation and speciation

Doc Brown's GCSE level biology exam revision study notes

Causes of variation, Darwin's theory of 'Natural Selection', work of Wallace on insects, Lamarckian evolution, speciation - how do separate species arise?, extinctions, selective breeding, origin of life, the rise of anti-biotic bacteria.   What is, and what causes, variation in species?   What did Darwin mean by 'Natural Selection'?  How did Lamarck's theory of evolution differ from Darwin?  What is the evidence for Darwin's theory of evolution?  What do we mean by speciation and how does it happen? What is the role of mutations in the theory of evolution?  What do we mean by selective breeding?

Sub-index for this section on evolution

(1) When did evolution theory start? - work of Darwin & Wallace, evidence for natural selection

(2) Other Theories of Evolution e.g. Lamarckism

(4) Environmental variation and the combined effects of genetic and environmental factors

(5) Continuous and discontinuous variation and statistical representations

(6) More on genetic variation, mutations, variants, effect on coding and non-coding DNA and the mechanism of natural selection - a modern genetic interpretation

(7) Evidence of evolution from fossils and other sources

(8) The evidence of human evolution - from prehistoric stone tools to modern genetic analysis

(9) Speciation - old and new species - extinction or survival? - current threat of extinctions, how they may affect us? use of gene banks

(10) Contemporary stories of evolution! (a) antibiotic-resistant bacteria and (b) a moth story

(11) Selective breeding (artificial selection by humans)

(12) How did life begin?

See also Adaptations - plant/animal examples described & explained including extremophiles

 Doc Brown's Biology exam study revision notes

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