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18: Evolution and the Origin of Species

  • Page ID
    104373
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    The theory of evolution is the unifying theory of biology, meaning it is the framework within which biologists ask questions about the living world. Its power is that it provides direction for predictions about living things that are borne out in experiment after experiment. The Ukrainian-born American geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky famously wrote that “nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution." He meant that the tenet that all life has evolved and diversified from a common ancestor is the foundation from which we approach all questions in biology.

    Thumbnail: A silhouette of human evolution. (CC BY-SA 3.0; Tkgd2007 via Wikimedia Commons).


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