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What Is Macroevolution? - Online Essays

What Is Macroevolution?

In science, macro at the beginning of a word just means "big", and micro at the beginning of a word just means "small" (both from the Greek words).
In evolutionary biology today, macroevolution is used to refer to any evolutionary change at or above the level of species. It means the splitting of a species into two or the change of a species over time into another. Any changes that occur at higher levels, such as the evolution of new families, phyla or genera, is also therefore macroevolution, but the term is not restricted to the origin of those higher taxa.
Microevolution refers to any evolutionary change below the level of species, and refers to changes in the frequency within a ...

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they tend to stay pretty much as they are for the rest of their existence. Phyletic gradualism suggests that species continue to adapt to new challenges over the course of their history. Species selection and species sorting theories claim that there are macroevolutionary processes going on that make it more or less likely that certain species will exist for very long before becoming extinct, in a kind of parallel to what happens to genes in microevolution.
The history of the concept of macroevolution

In the "modern synthesis" of neo-Darwinism, which developed in the period from 1930 to 1950 with the reconciliation of evolution by natural selection and modern genetics, macroevolution is thought to be the combined effects of microevolutionary processes. In theories proposing "orthogenetic evolution" (literally, straight line evolution), macroevolution is thought to be of a different calibre and process than microevolution. Nobody has been able to make a good case for ...

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What Is Macroevolution?. (2004, September 14). Retrieved November 23, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/What-Is-Macroevolution/14325

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Added: 9/14/2004 07:53:19 AM
Category: Science & Nature
Type: Premium Paper
Words: 1087
Pages: 4

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