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The Modern Synthesis

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The modern synthesis, taking shape by the 1940s, unified natural selection with Mendelian genetics, explaining how heritable variation, per Bio 1031, drives population evolution.

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Rediscovering Mendel's 1866 particulate-inheritance work resolved the difficulty blending inheritance had posed for selection acting on discrete units.

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Darwin and Wallace developed natural selection without knowing Mendelian genetics — the synthesis joined the two fields decades later.