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Molecular phylogeny

Mutation

Species

Speciation

Evolution & common sense

Evidence against evolution

Dog breeding

Evidence for evolution

Evidence for evolution

Scientific evidence is a conjunction of if-then arguments. As one compiles more and more of these, arguments increase in strength. If organisms are related then they will share DNA sequence similarity. If changes in DNA sequences are mutations then they will obey the probabilistic laws of (dilute) chemical reactions. If mutations are under natural selection then nonsynonymous mutations should be rarer than synonymous. If evolution is true then recently evolved species should be more similar than distantly evolved species. If evolution is true then there should be multiple mutagenic routes to the same phenotype. If pseudogenes are non (less) functional, then they should mutate faster than active genes. If mutations are random, then different classes of mutations (i.e. indels and point mutations) should yield similar phylogenetic trees. If a virus incorporates into the germline of a species then it and it's relics should appear in the species' descendents.