macroevolutionary
- adjective
- /ˌmækroʊˌɛvəˈluːʃənəri/
- Specialized
:
macroevolutivo
- Researchers investigate macroevolutionary patterns to trace the evolution of complex traits across different species.
Examples
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Do other macroevolutionary trends, such as the increase in diversity over geological time, also emerge from phenotypic selection acting on individuals within populations?
Academic text (2007) -
I, like many "evolutionists," believe that macroevolution is in fact the hand of God (or anyway, a god) at work, and in a way that I feel is far more awe-inspiring than if everything was created exactly as we see it today and underwent no macroevolutionary changes whatsoever.
Blog text (3) -
That's an open issue, and sex has had some very important macroevolutionary consequences.
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As such, whale origins form one of the most compelling examples of macroevolutionary change in vertebrates.
Academic text (2001) -
What are the macroevolutionary patterns in ecophysiological traits, viewed from a phylogenetic perspective?
Academic text (2000) -
Not only are they diverse everywhere, but the existence of independent radiations in each major tropical biome invites investigation of macroevolutionary processes.
Academic text (2005) -
The question of how new species evolve has been examined at every level, from macroevolutionary patterns of diversification to molecular population genetic analyses of specific genomic regions between species pairs.
Academic text (2017) -
The study of macroevolutionary changes helps us understand how new species emerge over millions of years.
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Darwin's theory is largely based on macroevolutionary principles that explain how life diversifies on Earth.
Synonyms
177
4.6
About slow change over a long time, often in living things
3
9.9
About how kinds of animals and plants change and are related over time
Continuing to change or develop slowly over time
How Large
- Specialized
- Specialized
Surface Forms
Morphology
macroevolutionary = evolutionary (transparent) = macro + evolution + ary
The meaning is directly compositional: macro- adds the sense of large-scale to evolutionary.
Etymology
The word macroevolutionary joins macro- meaning 'large' and evolution from evolve meaning 'change over time'. So, macroevolutionary describes very large, slow changes in living things that happen over long periods, like the origin of new species.