Evolution: The process by which a species' structural and behavioural characteristics change over many generations, sometimes in response to changes in environmental conditions. 'New' species develop in this way. For example, scientists think that whales gradually evolved from land animals. See also convergent evolution, divergent evolution.

 

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Evolution: 1) The change in life over time by adaptation, variation, over-reproduction, and differential survival/reproduction, a process referred to by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace as natural sel . . . View Full Definition

Convergent Evolution: The development of similar structures in distantly related organisms as a result of adapting to similar environments and/or strategies of life. Example: wings of birds and insects, the body . . . View Full Definition

Macroevolution: The combination of events associated with the origin, diversification, extinction, and interactions of organisms which produced the species that currently inhabit the Earth. Large scale evol . . . View Full Definition

Revolution: One complete orbit or cycle. In a natal chart, a planet's return to its natal degree upon completing a circuit of the map.