Evolutionary biology

sub-field of biology
(Redirected from Evolutionary biologist)

Evolutionary biology is a subfield of biology that studies how species start and change over time; or in other words, how species evolve. Someone who studies evolutionary biology is known as an evolutionary biologist.

Evolutionary biology became an academic subject as a result of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s.[1] It was not until the 1970s and 1980s that universities had departments that used the term evolutionary biology in their titles.

In the United States, as a result of the rapid growth of molecular and cell biology, many universities have split their biology departments into molecular and cell biology-style departments and ecology and evolutionary biology-style departments. These have included older departments such as paleontology, zoology and the like.

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  1. Sterelny, K. 2009. Philosophy of evolutionary thought. In Michael Ruse & Joseph Travis. Evolution: the first four billion years. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. p313/4 ISBN 978-0-674-03175-3.