Is evolution simply a response to changes in the environment?
478754
You can say that but simply change in environment isn't responsible. Evolution is combined result of various processes such as struggle for existence, hereditary variations, and most importantly gene mutations which are sudden changes in Base sequence in DNA
444517
Evolution is fact.  Think about it.
1036161
DNA is a way of storing information.  But that is far from intelligence.  Nothing senses changes in the environment and *decides* that it needs to change the organism to survive.\n\nYou are on the right track that there is an *element* of "luck" involved.    Randomness creates *variation*.  But there are two corrections you should know:  (1) Mutation is not the only source of randomness; and (2) Randomness is not the only thing driving evolution ... i.e. EVOLUTION IS NOT BLIND LUCK.\n\n1. Random mutations are improbable, but given huge numbers of replications, and huge amounts of time, there are *many* chances for mutations to occur, and those that produce some slight advantage tend to get propagated slightly better into future generations.  \n\nBut the invention of sexual reproduction took that randomness to a whole new level.   DNA from two different individuals could produce *huge* numbers of different combinations.  This allows improvements to propagate much faster into future generations, and allowed much faster adaptations to a changing environment.\n\n2. It's really important to know that EVOLUTION IS NOT JUST RANDOMNESS (BLIND LUCK).  Evolution is driven by 3 ingredients: variation + selection + time.  Randomness produces the *variation* ... but the selective pressures are NOT random.  \n\nFor example, a mammal may have several litters of offspring, say 20 in total.  Randomness produces the *variation* that some of these will be more hairy than their siblings.  But there is *nothing* random about the fact that those offspring with more hair may survive better in a colder environments and therefore produce more babies.  (E.g. if the environment is getting colder, or if some members want to, say, push a little further north.)  Add the ingredient of *time* and a much hairier subspecies can arise and get separated from the parent species ... and even more *time* and the subspecies can completely lose the ability to mate with the parent species, and you have two different species.\n\nSummary: randomness supplies the sparks of evolution, but selective pressures in the environment + time, provide the fuel.
1047522
They are similar in that they both study interactions between organisms and their environment (which includes other organisms), and both are concerned with adaptation and change over time.\n\nThey are different in that ecology stresses more the interactions, while evolution stresses the changes over time.  Ecology is concerned with much shorter timespans (months, years, maybe centuries) and how organisms affect and are affected by each other and their environment.  Evolution is concerned with much longer timespans (tens of thousands to millions of years) and how permanent changes appear in organisms as they encounter new or changing environments.
886454
For the millionth time...\n\nNatural selection is the opposite of "random chaos."\n\nOnce you have educated yourself on the subject of evolution (and that education does NOT come from your preacher or Answers in Genesis), the question is not whether you "believe" in it, but whether you accept it.\n\nThe purpose of life is to live it. Any purpose beyond that you decide on your own. Me personally, I would like to leave the world better than I found it.\n\nPS... I suppose by "Abba" you mean "father" and not the groovy (but slightly cheesy) Swedish band from the 70s?
1048996
Hey Bud, have you ever taken a class in evolution?\n\n"You're logic is flawed. There is plenty of evidence to show small adaptations within a species. These small variations enable animals to adapt to their environments.\n\nBut to go from that to changes from one species to another is quite a blind leap of faith and poor science as well. " Poor science according to who?\n\nHow many small variations does it take to turn one species into another?  A few small genetic variations make slight changes in organisms.... a few more make more changes... a few more make even more changes, and eventually enough of these little changes of added up so that the 2 groups of organisms are no longer able to interbreed. Thus, a new species - evolution at work.\n\nPoor science is when people who have not studied evolution try to disprove it. You come up with some pretty wacky ideas. Evolution is not something that animals do on purpose to improve. There is no plan, purpose, or goal to evolution. An animal that adapts to his environment (after he is already born) like your example is NOT evolution. Evolution affects populations, not individuals, and it does not 'occur' after an organism is born. Evolution only occurs when the gene frequency in the population is changed, through natural selection, random mutation, drift, etc.
739874
To evolve a thing must have a point at wich to begin,in the limited thought mode.\nevoltion is a constant in the universe, just like change. Evolution is Change and that is the only known constant in this Universe. as we understand it. \nCan time repeat itself, maybe. \nNot as we understand and accept things, so no, evolution cannot repeat itself.
391394
Evolution usually means adaptation to new circumstances, such as changes in habitat.\n\nIf mankind manages to colonize moon or mars, it is possible that the lower gravity environment will lead to speciation. \n\nWhenever Pandemias strike, they act as selection criteria.\n\n\nHowever, mankind has left pure natural selection quite a while ago and now also applies conscious selection of traits (aka breeding). Not just to domestic animals, but also to themselves. It is not predictable where anthropogenic changes to the human species will end.
861325
Changing, definitely. \nEvolution is a result of natural selection -- the environmental pressures on the organisms' ability to survive and pass on their genes to the next generation. They adapt to a particular environment so they are improved for those circumstances. When circumstances change, however, that change might not be an improvement, but could turn out to be a handicap. Example: evolving toward less fur in a warm environment. If the environment turns cold, those with fur might have a better chance of living to pass on their genes.
579669
The 'modern' human experiment could be seen as an answer to your question.  We now, for our 'comfort' do things which are certainly to be considered 'adaptive selection of species'.  The way this results in 'natural selection of a population' can be felt and seen and even quantified, if one is sentient and humble enough.  Glad to help!
464944
NONE.  All things were created!  Things adapt to changing environments, but they never turn into something entirely new.
1187262
No.  As long as the world around us continues to change, humans will adapt and evolve to meet that change.
320406
There are many things that support the theory of evolution.  Mainly, the fossil record and the fact that you are here, though if natural selection holds true, you will not be working in any fied of science any time soon. \nThe tide example that you state does not disprove evolution because it's false; the amount of water in the world has not change as you suggest.  There is no reason to believe that any change in tides would work increasingly to cover the earth with water.  There are fluctuations in the level of the seas that follow geological and thermal events over the course of centuries and millenia, like the ice ages. In second place, evolution is not about the age of the earth, it's about natural adaptation to the environment. Examples to prove it can be found anywhere in nature.  Sea iguanas in Galapagos are one of the best-known examples of adaptive development.   If there was no evolution, these iguanas would be terrestrial like all of the other species of iguana in the world.  But they're not, they have evolved an adaptation to marine environments.  Think of that as a microcosm of what happens in the rest of nature.\nWhy do we have a residual tailbone?  Why do whales have residual fingers?  We don't have tails and we don't need them, but the tailbone is there...  If someone meant for us to have a tail, they would have given us a tail or none altogether.  The fact that we have a bone structure that serves no apparent purpose but to cause pain when you fall on your but and break it proves that there is an ongoing process that we are a part of.\nEvolution does not exclude creation, it just makes creation dynamic and alive at a much broader scale.  That creation cannot be a process driven by biology instead of a stagnant  pile of events is not written anywhere in any holy book.
856777
Nope.  Only evolution.
350652
Here you go, check this out.\n\nhttp://evolution.berkeley.edu/
534036
Evolution, in some aspects, has this explanation. Although I don't personally believe on macroevolution--that we come from apes and so on--I do believe on microevolution--that cellular changes happen for adaptation purposes. An example of microevolution is cancer, etc. \n\nIf we believe that the only constant thing in this world is "change," then we are potential evolutionists (micro, personally).\n\nRaces started when people scattered from the Plain of Shinar, where the Tower of Babel was once erected for the glorification of the human race.\n\nI believe that our ancestors had the similar single complexion then. But as some were dispersed to the snowy regions, and others to the arid regions of the world, their body reacted to the external environment. Their cells started to produce certain chemicals that were just shut off in their previous environment, which allowed them to adapt to their new environments.\n\nThose who live in the cold regions need to camouflage to the snow, and do not need abundant melanim for UV protection. Consequently, their skin became fairer. Meanwhile, those who reached the arid regions need to camouflage to their envrironment as well, and need abundant melanin to protect them from the detrimental effect of the Ultraviolet radiation from the sun. Consequently, they had their skin darker. The other races are in between these extremes. The common physiology is for adaptation.
978981
In biology, evolution is the change in the heritable traits of a population over successive generations, as determined by shifts in the allele frequencies of genes. Over time, this process can result in speciation, the development of new species from existing ones.