The evolutionary biology includes that part of the field of life sciences, which the evolutionary process in the course of Earth’s history to the present day as well as the evolution factors studied. Central problems of modern evolutionary biology are the reconstruction of the phylogeny processes of organisms, the interaction of evolutionary factors with each other and with the environment as well as the evolution of genome systems, which are closely related to the respective carrier organisms. Evolutionary biology is closely linked to other disciplines. Paleontology, ecology, bio-geography, Anatomy/Morphology, Physiology, Biochemistry, Behavioral Biology, Molecular Biology and Genetics.
The first textual mention of the term evolutionary biology is probably in 1942 in English as evolutionary biology in Julian Huxleys become known book Evolution: The Modern Synthesis. In German-speaking countries, the term evolutionary biology has held only in the 1980s full collection, previously one spoke rather only by evolution or evolutionary theory, formerly also of the theory of evolution or theory of evolution.
While Charles Darwin considered evolution, that is, the differentiation of organisms into variable populations in the course of numerous generations, as a hypothesis, for the 14 years younger Wallace the Descent with Modification was already a fact. Since August Weismann, the fact of biological (organismic) evolution has no longer been doubted by a knowledgeable biologist, with evolutionary processes on the micro as well as the macro scale representing real historical natural processes. Some of the basic principles can be experimentally and analytically tested and in many cases reconstructed with age -dated fossil sequences (reasonably correct, never complete).
In the past, biologists spoke of the theory of evolution ; Since the establishment of modern evolutionary biology, however, it has become clear that there is no uniform general theory that explains all aspects of evolution, but that different approaches and branches of research must jointly develop the scientific building blocks for the complex individual processes. Evolutionary biology is thus a multifaceted system of theories that integrates concepts, insights and methods from paleontology to molecular biology. The problem of the beginning of life on Earth deals with chemical evolution.
Biological evolution can be seen, in large part, as a systemic characteristic of populations, as new variability arises with each progeny, with the genetically determined information being passed on by those individuals who reproduce most successfully. Often, good adaptation to environmental conditions is a prerequisite in the broadest sense, but there are also considerable random components in differential gene delivery, especially in small population sizes. Often, in the analysis and discussion between the genotypes (the genetic picture) of an organism and the phenotypes(the appearance) of an organism. For many questions, including z. For example, on the effects of evolutionary processes on medical findings (in the context of evolutionary medicine ), the genomic system, its dynamics and evolution itself are studied.
Evolutionary biological analysis methods thus encompass a wide spectrum of scientific process techniques. These may include physical age dating in individual cases, chemical analyzes of organic residues in the rocks, cell, developmental and molecular biology studies to understand the emergence of diverse animal and plant forms, DNA sequence analyzes and pedigree reconstructions to identify the relationships and the branches of various Tribal lines of each other (eg, human and chimpanzee lineage) or geological-tectonic and paleoclimatological studies to reconstruct earlier environments of the organisms at that time.
Brief History of Evolutionary Biology
Modern evolutionary biology is an integrative science discipline that has developed from 1940 to 1950, among others, through the work of the British zoologist Julian Huxley (1887-1975), the Russian-American insect researcher and geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky (1900-1975) and the German-American Zoologist and systematist Ernst Mayr (1904-2005) has developed. In 1946, the Society for the Study of Evolution was founded in the United States, where officiated as the founding editor of the journal published by the Society Evolution E. Mayr . In Europe it came only in 1987 through the then in Baselteaching US evolutionary biologist Stephen C. Stearns to found a European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB). The strong delay in modern evolutionary research on continental Europe has probably been caused by the events of World War II and its consequences.
The origin of scientific evolutionary biology can be seen in the main work of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829), who in his book Philosophy Zoologique (1809) first showed that the organisms are not constant creations, but have developed from archetypes (Concept the species transformation). The book, however, was it not written legibly, not very popular, and is now often only with the so-called Lamarckism linked, although this was only one part of the factory and later workers of the 19th century, including Charles Darwin, were in principle followers of the corresponding theory, but they expanded to other central components.
With the 1858 presented theory of Charles Darwin (1809-1882) and Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) (major works: On the Origin of Species, 1859, Darwinism, 1889) was the first mechanisms of art transformation, of Darwin as Descent with modification Be formulated. Central to this was the principle of evolution through variation and natural selection. He also integrated special aspects such as sexual selection later (1871).
Classical theory of descent or theory of descent was extended by August Weismann (1834-1914) and Alfred Russel Wallace to a Neo-Darwinian theory, which assumed the main cause of biological variability in animals and plants, the two-sex reproduction (sexual reproduction) a new combination of hereditary factors made possible and the directed natural selection as a central driving force of species change looked. With the development of the synthetic theory of biological evolution by Dobzhansky, Mayr, Huxley and other biologists, a merger of population genetic Studies with the findings from the paleontology, comparative anatomy and biogeography are accomplished (1937 to approx. 1950). This theory, based on six main theses, was expanded from 2000 to the Extended Synthetic Theory of Biological Evolution (expanded synthesis), integrating the theory of symbiosis developed by Konstantin Mereschkowski. Modern molecular phylogeny -oriented evolutionary biology emerged as an independent branch of the life sciences from the extended synthetic theory and is today as all biological branches uniting general discipline of theoretical and practical importance ( agriculture, medicine, etc.). In the meantime, it even makes it possible to reconstruct the development of genomes, for example the integration of parasitic DNA in the form of transposons into the genome of higher organisms in the course of geological history, and to approximately date them by means of the molecular clock principle.
