Understanding Evolution: your one-stop source for information on evolution

Welcome to Understanding Evolution

Understanding Evolution is a non-commercial, education website, teaching the science and history of evolutionary biology. This site is here to help you understand what evolution is, how it works, how it factors into your life, how research in evolutionary biology is performed, and how ideas in this area have changed over time.

Here's an overview of what Understanding Evolution has to offer:


The Arthropod Story Original content
At the heart of Understanding Evolution are our feature articles, highlighting all aspects of evolution science. Our content is written for a general audience — everyone will find something interesting to read. To give you an idea of the variety, we have:
  • Evolution 101 — an in-depth, multi-part course that takes you through evolutionary theory and mechanisms, from definitions to details, natural selection to genetic drift, mutations to punctuated equilibrium.

  • The arthropod story — an interactive investigation that's great for students, exploring the arthropods and their evolutionary history

  • Battling bacterial evolution — a research profile of Carl Bergstrom's work fighting against antibiotic resistant bacteria

  • Aloha — spider style! — a research profile of Rosemary Gillespie's work with Hawaiian happy-face spiders

  • Survival of the sneakiest — a comic strip about a male cricket as he tries to attract a mate

  • Similarities and differences: Understanding homology and analogy — an interactive investigation that explains what homologies and analogies are, how to recognize them, and how they evolve

  • Fire ants invade and evolve — Understanding the evolution of fire ants may help scientists control the spread of these pests, which have already taken over much of the U.S.

  • The history of evolutionary thought — see how the study of Earth's history, life's history, mechanisms of evolution, and development and genetics has contributed to our current understanding of evolution.

    ...and much more!

Additionally, we've linked to valuable articles on other websites, reviewing what's out there and posting the very best.

Browse Browsable topic directory
It's easy to find what you're looking for at Understanding Evolution. You can browse all of our content by topic, starting from the homepage. Our content is divided into four main categories:

You can also do keyword searches of the entire site from the search page.
Teaching Evolution Understanding Evolution for teachers
Understanding Evolution for teachers is a subsite within Understanding Evolution dedicated to helping teachers with the subject of evolution. The teacher site includes basic evolution information, classroom strategies, lists of concepts appropriate for different levels, lesson plans and more. You can always reach the teacher site from the Understanding Evolution homepage.
Evo in the news Evo in the news, and other updates
Every month we will post an Evo in the news feature on our homepage, providing easy-to-understand explanations of current issues.

We are also adding new feature articles to the site as we create them. If you'd like to be informed about site updates, you can subscribe to Understanding Evolution.



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