Definition of Evolution

Evolution is the result of genetic changes that occur in constantly changing environments.
As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know how natural selection determines the differential survival of
groups of organisms.
b. Students know a great diversity of species increases the chance that at least some
organisms survive major changes in the environment.
c. Students know the effects of genetic drift on the diversity of organisms in a population.
d. Students know reproductive or geographic isolation affects speciation.
e. Students know how to analyze fossil evidence with regard to biological diversity,
episodic speciation, and mass extinction.
f.* Students know how to use comparative embryology, DNA or protein sequence
comparisons, and other independent sources of data to create a branching diagram
(cladogram) that shows probable evolutionary relationships.
g.* Students know how several independent molecular clocks, calibrated against each
other and combined with evidence from the fossil record, can help to estimate
how long ago various groups of organisms diverged evolutionarily from one
another.