Evolutionary biology
Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology that studies how species start and change over time; or in other words, how species evolve. Someone who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist.
History
changeEvolutionary biology became an academic subject as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s.[1] It was not until the 1970s and 1980s that universities had departments which used the term evolutionary biology in their titles.
As a result of the rapid growth of molecular and cell biology, many universities have split their biology departments into molecular and cell biology-style departments and ecology and evolutionary biology-style departments. These have absorbed older departments such as paleontology, zoology, botany and the like.
Related pages
changeReferences
change- ↑ Sterelny K. 2009. Philosophy of evolutionary thought. In Michael Ruse & Joseph Travis. Evolution: the first four billion years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p313/4. ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3