Question: Are there many types of evolution?

Steven Daly answered on 18 Jun 2011:

All evolution is essentially the same, as it just means an animal changing over time to better suit their environment. There are different ways in which evolution can take place. Almost all the ways you will be familiar with is evolution by natural selection, which was of course the original idea of Darwin. Here, you have a population of animals that are all slightly different, and some will be better suited to reproduce and survive. The successful animals will pass their genes on and create animals will similar traits as themselves, so animals evolve to be better suited surviving their environment.

Strangely, there are some things that can affect evolution, or at leact populations of animals that are not controlled by genetics. So for example the sex of a crocodile is not determined by the genes, but by the temperature the egg is incubated at. There are other examples of this type of process in nature, which is not controlled by genetics, and this can also lead to natural selection.