Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations o

ver successive generations.[1][2] Evolutionary processes give rise to biodiversi

ty at every level of biological organisation, including the levels of species, i
ndividual organisms, and molecules.[3]
All life on Earth shares a common ancestor known as the last universal common an
cestor (LUCA),[4][5][6] which lived approximately 3.5 3.8 billion years ago,[7] al
though a study in 2015 found "remains of biotic life" from 4.1 billion years ago
in ancient rocks in Western Australia.[8][9] In July 2016, scientists reported
identifying a set of 355 genes from the LUCA of all organisms living on Earth.[1
0]
Repeated formation of new species (speciation), change within species (anagenesi
s), and loss of species (extinction) throughout the evolutionary history of life
on Earth are demonstrated by shared sets of morphological and biochemical trait
s, including shared DNA sequences.[11] These shared traits are more similar amon
g species that share a more recent common ancestor, and can be used to reconstru
ct a biological "tree of life" based on evolutionary relationships (phylogenetic
s), using both existing species and fossils. The fossil record includes a progre
ssion from early biogenic graphite,[12] to microbial mat fossils,[13][14][15] to
fossilized multicellular organisms. Existing patterns of biodiversity have been
shaped both by speciation and by extinction.[16] More than 99 percent of all sp
ecies that ever lived on Earth are estimated to be extinct.[17][18] Estimates of
Earth's current species range from 10 to 14 million,[19][20] of which about 1.9
million are estimated to have been named[21] and 1.6 million documented in a ce
ntral database to date.[22] More recently, in May 2016, scientists reported that
1 trillion species are estimated to be on Earth currently with only one-thousan
dth of one percent described.[23]
In the mid-19th century, Charles Darwin formulated the scientific theory of evol
ution by natural selection, published in his book On the Origin of Species (1859
). Evolution by natural selection is a process demonstrated by the observation t
hat more offspring are produced than can possibly survive, along with three fact
s about populations: 1) traits vary among individuals with respect to morphology
, physiology, and behaviour (phenotypic variation), 2) different traits confer d
ifferent rates of survival and reproduction (differential fitness), and 3) trait
s can be passed from generation to generation (heritability of fitness).[24] Thu
s, in successive generations members of a population are replaced by progeny of
parents better adapted to survive and reproduce in the biophysical environment i
n which natural selection takes place. This teleonomy is the quality whereby the
process of natural selection creates and preserves traits that are seemingly fi
tted for the functional roles they perform.[25] The processes by which the chang
es occur, from one generation to another, are called evolutionary processes or m
echanisms.[26] The four most widely recognized evolutionary processes are natura
l selection (including sexual selection), genetic drift, mutation and gene migra
tion.[26] Natural selection and genetic drift sort variation; mutation and gene
migration create variation.[26]
Consequences of selection can include meiotic drive[27] (unequal transmission of
certain alleles), nonrandom mating[28] and genetic hitchhiking. In the early 20
th century the modern evolutionary synthesis integrated classical genetics with
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection through the discipline of popu
lation genetics. The importance of natural selection as a cause of evolution was
accepted into other branches of biology. Moreover, previously held notions abou
t evolution, such as orthogenesis, evolutionism, and other beliefs about innate
"progress" within the largest-scale trends in evolution, became obsolete.[29] Sc
ientists continue to study various aspects of evolutionary biology by forming an
d testing hypotheses, constructing mathematical models of theoretical biology an
d biological theories, using observational data, and performing experiments in b
oth the field and the laboratory.
In terms of practical application, an understanding of evolution has been instru
mental to developments in numerous scientific and industrial fields, including a
griculture, human and veterinary medicine, and the life sciences in general.[30]
[31][32] Discoveries in evolutionary biology have made a significant impact not
just in the traditional branches of biology but also in other academic disciplin
es, including biological anthropology, and evolutionary psychology.[33][34] Evol
utionary computation, a sub-field of artificial intelligence, involves the appli
cation of Darwinian principles to problems in computer science.