Matches in DBpedia 2016-04 for { ?s ?p "Devolution, de-evolution, or backward evolution is the notion that species can revert into more \"primitive\" forms over time.In modern biology the term is redundant: evolutionary science deals with selection or adaptation that results in populations of organisms genetically different from their ancestral forms, where evolution has no intrinsic directionality. The discipline makes no general distinction between changes leading to populations of forms less complex or more complex than their ancestors, and in such terms the concept of a primitive species cannot be defined.Current non-technical application of the concept of \"devolution\" is based largely on the fallacies that: in biology there is a preferred hierarchy of structure and function, and that evolution must mean \"progress\" to \"more advanced\" organisms with more complex structure and function.Those errors in turn are related to two misconceptions: that: evolution is supposed to make species more \"advanced\", as opposed to \"primitive\"; and that modern species that have lost some of the functions or complexity of their ancestors must accordingly be degenerate forms. (Note however that degeneracy in this context has little to do with the current technical use of the term degeneracy in biology).↑"@en }
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- Devolution_(biology) abstract "Devolution, de-evolution, or backward evolution is the notion that species can revert into more \"primitive\" forms over time.In modern biology the term is redundant: evolutionary science deals with selection or adaptation that results in populations of organisms genetically different from their ancestral forms, where evolution has no intrinsic directionality. The discipline makes no general distinction between changes leading to populations of forms less complex or more complex than their ancestors, and in such terms the concept of a primitive species cannot be defined.Current non-technical application of the concept of \"devolution\" is based largely on the fallacies that: in biology there is a preferred hierarchy of structure and function, and that evolution must mean \"progress\" to \"more advanced\" organisms with more complex structure and function.Those errors in turn are related to two misconceptions: that: evolution is supposed to make species more \"advanced\", as opposed to \"primitive\"; and that modern species that have lost some of the functions or complexity of their ancestors must accordingly be degenerate forms. (Note however that degeneracy in this context has little to do with the current technical use of the term degeneracy in biology).↑".