Charles Darwin Natural Selection Essay

I am a member of the Royal Society, I fully support Charles Darwin and his work on gradualism and the idea of natural selection. I have read Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species and have read the work of Hough Falconer who is a paleontologist that found early fossil evidence to support Darwin’s theory. In our world we are surrounded by variation, variation can be seen in habitats, plats, animals, and humans. Their needs to be variation throughout life so that organisms will be able to survive and reproduce. Through what I have read, I believe that variation is necessary in order for species to evolve. In society, creationist and scientists debate about how the world came to be. It is questioned if God created the world in six days or if

Darwin’s theory of evolution was along the lines of all life being related- each descending from a common ancestor. His theory presumes the development of life from non-life and suggests purely naturistic

Darwin was the British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution and natural selection. Like several scientists before him, Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved over millions of years from a few common ancestors. From 1831 to 1836 Darwin served as naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle on a British science expedition around the world. In South America Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that were similar to modern species. On the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean he noticed many variations among plants and animals of the same general type as those in South America. The expedition visited places around the world, and Darwin studied plants and animals everywhere he went, collecting specimens for further study.

Charles Darwin began his scientific breakthroughs and upcoming theories when he began an expedition trip to the Galapagos Islands of South America. While studying there, he discovered that each island had its own type of plant and animal species. Although these plants and animals were similar in appearance, they had other characteristics that made them differ from one another and seem to not appear as similar. Darwin questioned why these plants and animals were on these islands and why they are different in ways.

Charles Darwin discovered and developed this evolutionary mechanism called natural selection. It basically stated that if there existed variation in population there would be a struggle of survival. Darwin meant that those traits that were the most fit would be passed on to the next generation more often.

Charles Darwin during the 19th century brought proof to the theory of natural selection during a study in the Galápagos Islands. He acknowledged that

In 1837, Charles Darwin was traveling aboard the H.M.S. Beagle in the Eastern Pacific when he stopped on the Galapagos Islands. There, Darwin found a wide array of animals including the Galápagos finches. The differences that he uncovered between these animals sparked Darwin’s interest; he had never before seen nor attempted to understand the similarities and differences inherent within these species. Examining each and uncovering the probable reasons for their distinctions, namely their differing needs for adaptation, Darwin constructed his theory of natural selection. From his observations on the Galapagos Islands, Darwin continued developing his research into eventually what became known as the Origin of Species, published in 1858. In this book, he asserted that these animals and differing species did not just appeared out of thin air, but rather had evolved from other species through the process of natural selection. Yet, his scientific findings were not accepted by the general public when first published, nor long after. Instead, they sparked a great uproar and criticism, since for most people accepted the theory of the Creation, the belief of divine creation, as the way people and species appeared on earth. His findings, so contrary to the then accepted norm of creation, were met with hostility and resentment by many who considered his work

Charles Darwin devoted his adult life to trying to understand the process of evolution. At 22 years of age, he sailed off to South America to study various species of plants and animals. Darwin spent many years researching and documenting what he believed was a logical and scientific explanation of our existence. He felt strongly that life started in the simplest form and then later became more complex with each species over generations. Darwin was a radical of sorts. In the article, Darwin, published by the American Museum of Natural History (2005-2006), he was referred to as a revolutionary, and even though he was hesitant to do so because he knew it would cause outrage; he changed our view of the natural world (para. 3).

In his book Charles Darwin in his book the origin of species, gave a new theory about creation. Darwin’s theory challenged the view of creation as wrote in the bible in which every species was created independently. He argues that creation was a result of adaptations and it took millions of years for the species that are now part of the universe to be the way they are. He mentions that the adaptations to better the species were proof of an intelligent design by the creator. Darwin’s in his text mentions the creator multiple times. It is not clear if he did it to have the opportunity to get attention from the strong religious communities, or because he really believed in a higher power.

In 1859, Charles Darwin set out his theory of evolution by natural selection as an explanation for adaptation and specialization. He defined natural selection as the “principle by which each slight variation, if useful at all, may be preserved”

Darwin’s theory states that all organisms come from a common ancestor and vary in characteristics because of mutations regardless of the needs or wants. Changes occur

Just like his grandfather Erasmus Darwin he spoke of species changing over time. “Darwin along with Russel Wallace suggested a mechanism, natural selection, to explain how that connectedness and functional traits of organisms came about” (Little, 2010). The finches in the Galapagos Islands confirmed his idea of natural selection. Natural selection is a “process by which beneficial alleles increase in frequency over time in a population due to survival and reproductive success of the individuals carrying those alleles. This is a consequence of variation, inheritance and differential survival” (Bergstrom,

Darwin stated that organisms exhibiting “advantageous variations” will be more likely to survive, and those who did not have the variations wild die and their lineage will become extinct. After establishing the main principles of natural selection he goes on to say that the continual modification and divergence of organisms creates a branching “course of action” for evolution. In this “course of action” new species continually branch off from old ones. The “branches” represent a link between species. This is the point where Darwin’s book challenges the theory of creationism. He says that the reason many species look alike is because they have either evolved from one another, or they both evolved from a common parent species. This implies that

Charles Darwin broached the theory of natural selection in his book the Origin of Species, which has been considered the basis of evolutionary biology to this day. Natural selection is when populations of a species evolve over the course of many generations. Darwin believed that species were not created separately, but instead, species were derived from one another. In other words, the evolution of species creates many variations among creatures, and this is because all of those species came from a common ancestor, and characteristics changed to increase the species chance of survival.

Charles Darwin was a man who shaped the way in which we think about evolution in modern times. He brought forth and described the theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest. To fully understand modern evolutionary thoughts it is necessary for one to completely understand the early theories of Charles Darwin. In this paper I will provide the reader with a complete background on Charles Darwin, describe his voyage on the HMS Beagle, and discuss his theory of natural selection.