microevolution

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

micro- +‎ evolution, coined by Robert Greenleaf Leavitt in 1909.

Pronunciation[edit]

  • Audio (US)(file)

Noun[edit]

microevolution (countable and uncountable, plural microevolutions)

  1. Small-scale changes in the history of life, such as changes in allele frequencies in a population (over a few generations); also known as change at or below the species level.
    Hypernym: evolution
    Coordinate term: macroevolution
    • 2020 November 9, Nicholas St Fleur, “How a Human Cousin Adapted to a Changing Climate”, in The New York Times‎[1], →ISSN:
      “It basically hasn’t become this massive chewing and grinding machine that it becomes later,” Mr. Martin said. The change would have been the result of microevolution, or an evolutionary change occurring within a species.

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