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EVOLUTION 101
Introduction
Patterns
Mechanisms
Microevolution
Speciation
Macroevolution
The big issues
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Genetic variation
Without genetic variation, some of the basic mechanisms of evolutionary
change cannot operate.
There are three primary sources of genetic variation, which we will
learn more about:
- Mutations are changes in the DNA. A single mutation
can have a large effect, but in many cases, evolutionary change is
based on the accumulation of many mutations.
- Gene flow is any movement
of genes from one population to another and is an important source
of genetic variation.
- Sex can introduce new gene combinations into a population. This
genetic shuffling is another important source of genetic variation.
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| Genetic shuffling is a source of variation. |
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Mechanisms
page 4 of 22
| Learn more about genetic variation in context:
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