I was lucky enough to find a copy of the seventh edition of The Origin of Species in a used bookstore a few days ago and I’ve finally been able to dive in. I have an older edition of the book (not exactly sure which one) but I haven’t read it in a few years so I’m very excited!

An interesting example of this is DNA and protein homology: Different species have similar DNA sequences or proteins because they inherited them from a shared common ancestor. Without the concept of common ancestry, these similarities would be difficult to explain.

“Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” - Evolutionary geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky!

Modern biology is still fundamentally based on Darwinian evolution. Even when general biology textbooks don’t explicitly frame areas like molecular biology or genetics in evolutionary terms, those fields make the most sense when viewed through an evolutionary perspective.

Hi all — I’m an evolutionary biology undergraduate interested in speciation, macroevolution, and paleontology. Glad to be joining the conversation.