After reading this chapter, you should be able to:

3.1 Explain how cosmologies regarding human origins differ from scientific views of evolution.
3.2 Discuss how the scientific revolution provided the context for the theory of evolution.
3.3 Explain how Darwin’s view of natural selection and evolution differed from earlier
scientific views.
3.4 Summarize Gregor Johann Mendel’s principles of inheritance.
3.5 Explain how Mendel’s principles of inheritance have changed in light of a better
understanding of molecular genetics.
3.6 Define evolution and discuss how it takes place.
3.7 Describe how and why new species arise.
3.8 Recall ways that researchers have studied evolution.