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In Biology, Co-evolution is the mutual evolutionary influence between two species that become dependent on each other. Each party in a co-evolutionary relationship exerts selective pressures on the other, thereby affecting each others' evolution. Coevolution is an extreme example of mutualism.
Examples include pollination of orchids by hummingbirds. These species co-evolve because the birds are dependent on the flowers for nectar and the flowers are dependent on the birds to spread their pollen so they can reproduce. The evolutionary process has led to long-billed birds and deep flowers.
Co-evolution also occurs between predator and prey species (see Red QueenThe Red Queen or Red Queen's Race is an evolutionary theory explaining the advantage of sex. By making every individual an experiment when mixing mother's and father's genes, sex may allow a species to adapt quickly just to hold onto the ecological niche).
Co-evolution is also used to refer to evolutionary interactions between and even within molecules in the field of molecular evolutionMolecular evolution is the process of the genetic material in populations of organisms changing over time. The genetic material consists of DNA, long sequences of nucleotides in each individual organism. Because most heritable changes in visible traits ar (for example, between hormones and receptors). This usage has existed at least since the term "molecular coevolution" was coined by G. Dover in 1984.
Co-evolution is one of the techniques used for generating artificial lifeArtificial life also known as alife is the study of life through the use of human-made analogs of living systems. Computer scientist Christopher Langton coined the term in the late 1980s when he held the first "International Conference on the Synthesis an. Bodies (bars and actuators) are evolved together with neurons in a simulated environment.