Evolution is an Ever-Continuing Process (College Board AP® Biology)

Continuing Evolution

• We tend to think of today's range of organisms as the endpoint in the story of evolution

• Or even to think that evolution has stopped or 'peaked' in the modern day

• In fact, there is nothing to suggest that this is the case

• An average human lifetime is 80 years, which is an infinitesimally short time in evolutionary terms

  • So very little observable evolution happens in one human lifetime

  • Rather, the process is gradual and the changes are almost imperceptible

• Populations of organisms continue to evolve

• All species have evolved and continue to evolve

  • All species display evidence of genomic changes over time

  • There is evidence of continuous change in the fossil record

  • Bacteria show evidence of their evolution of resistance to antibiotics

  • Animals and plants display evidence of resistance to pesticides, herbicides or chemotherapy drugs

  • Pathogens evolve and cause emergent diseases eg. in the COVID-19 pandemic