What is macroevolution?

1 Answer
Oct 12, 2015

Macroevolution is evolution on a large scale, a scale that encompasses more than just the species level.

Explanation:

When we're referring to how the demise of the dinosaurs left room for mammals to evolve or how chimpanzees and humans last shared a common ancestor 6-7 million years ago, we're talking about macroevolution.

Trends in evolution or other large-scale examples, the evolution of amphibians for example, are parts of macroevolution. This is in contrast to microevolution, or evolution on the smaller scale of populations.

http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/0_0_0/evo_48

To learn more about the subject, check out this Nature page.