Lecture 1 - The Nature of Evolution: Selection, Inheritance, and History

The lecture presents an overview of evolutionary biology and its two major components, microevolution and macroevolution. The idea of evolution goes back before Darwin, although Darwin thought of natural selection. Evolution is driven by natural selection, the correlation between organism traits and reproductive success, as well as random drift. The history of life goes back approximately 3.7 billion years to a common ancestor, and is marked with key events that affect all life. Reading assignment: Stearns, Stephen C. and Rolf Hoekstra. Evolution: An Introduction, chapter 1 Resources: [[http://cmi2.yale.edu/galapagos_public|You may view the Yale Galapagos site]]