Evolutionary Biology

This course deals primarily with the science which looks at evolutionary trends as a source and origin of living things. Evolutionary Biology applies biological principles and reasoning to trace the evolutionary process we know to-day. It is therefore the synthesis of biology and evolution. Evolution is a series of structural change of an organism in adaptation to a changing environment/ or ecological factors which ultimately change the genetic constitution of a living organism. The basis of evolution was laid down by Charles Robert Darwin ( 1809-1882), who postulated the theory of natural selection as the cause of evolutionary change. Today, the Darwinian concept of natural selection is fully explained in terms of gene frequencies and the changes they undergo from one generation to the next. Although Darwin had no knowledge of genetics, he could predict that variability in populations is responsible for the origin of adaptations. Today we know that variability is generated continuously in populations by mutations and further enhanced by genetic recombinations. These processes, together with the action of natural selection, bring about changes in gene frequencies  in populations. This processs are what constitutes Evolutionary Biology