Biological evolution is reduced to three fundamental processes in the spirit of a minimal model: (i) Competition caused by differential fitness, (ii) cooperation of competitors in the sense of symbiosis, and (iii) variation introduced by mutation understood as error-prone reproduction. The three combinations of two fundamental processes each, (A) competition and mutation, (B) cooperation and competition, and (C) cooperation and mutation, are analyzed. Changes in population dynamics that are induced by bifurcations and threshold phenomena are discussed.