Evolution 101: Genetic Drift

Introduction to the basic mechanisms of evolutionary change: mutations, gene flow, genetic shuffling, and development.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Genetic Variation and Mutation

Hyperlinked article about the mechanism of evolution that acts in concert with natural selection to change the characteristics of species over time.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Genetic Drift

Describes the how genetic drift, one of the most important mechanisms of evolution, works.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Genetic Drift

Activity designed to help students visualize evolution at a simple level and develop their intuition for the process of genetic drift.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Genetic Drift

Brief hyperlinked article about the founder effect, the loss of genetic variation when a new colony is formed by a very small number of individuals, an extreme example of genetic drift.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Genetic Drift

Describes the phenomenon acting on small, reproductively isolated populations that can produce rapid changes in gene frequencies totally independent of mutation, recombination, and natural selection.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Genetic Drift

Evolution 101 provides the nuts-and-bolts on the patterns and mechanisms of evolution.

• Category:
• Evolution

Describes cases where two (or more) species reciprocally affect each other's evolution.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Coevolution

Allows readers to explore different ways to define a species and learn about the various processes through which speciation can occur.

• Category:
• Evolution
• 
• Speciation

Provides articles on a number of topics in the evolutionary and genetic fields.

• Category:
• News and Media
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• Publications