what are the various ways in which variation is generated through meiosis?

Question

Also what is the evolutionary importance of this?

Answer 1

crossing over of chromatids between homologous chromasomes, this shuffles DNA from mother and father randomly

random seperation of homologous chromosomes (after crossing over) which can form new cells, these chromosomes then split in half but this doesnt shuffle

mutations at any point i suppose

Answer 2

Meiosis provides variation in two ways:

1. During prophase I, the homologous chromosomes synapse, and the two "inner" chromatids undergo crossing over, exchanging segments and making new combinations of genes on those two chromatids.
2. Meiosis makes gametes that have one of each pair of homologous chromosomes. These are assorted independently. That means that the choice of which one of each pair gets into a certain gamete is random. This makes a huge variety of gametes from a single parent.

In evolution, it's important to have variation because when the environment changes there might be a few individuals with some lucky variation that lets them survive when others die. Since changes in the environment are unpredictable, species are much better off when there are plenty of variations.