https://doi.org/10.1351/goldbook.14667
- Transformation of animals, plants, and other living organisms into different forms by the accumulation of changes over successive generations.
- Transmutation of species.
- Origination or transformation of an organism, organ, physiological process, biological molecule, etc., by a series of changes.
Note: The theory of evolution (in general) is the proposition that all living organisms have undergone a process of alteration and diversification from simple primordial forms during the Earth’s history; (in particular) it is a scientific theory proposing a mechanism for this process, now especially that based on Darwin’s theory of the natural selection of genetically inherited and adaptive variation (see neo-Darwinism)