Evolutionary biology

High school (ages 12+)
Science & Technology

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/evolutionary-biology

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. How big is Evolutionary biology?Genetic architecture of adaptation, molecular evolution, evolutionary developmental biology (evo-devo)
2. What is the key mechanisms studied?Natural selection, mutation, genetic drift, gene flow, and sexual selection
3. What is evolutionary biology and why do living things change over time?Evolutionary biology studies how life changes over millions of years. It looks at how new traits appear and how species adapt to their environment.
4. How does natural selection help animals survive?Natural selection keeps traits that help animals survive and reproduce. Animals with useful traits are more likely to have babies that grow up.

Allele Frequency: The relative proportion of a specific variant of a gene within a population.
Phylogenetics: The study of evolutionary relationships among biological entities, often depicted in phylogenetic trees.
Speciation: The evolutionary process by which new biological species arise in the course of evolution.