Years ago Charles Darwin created the theory of natural selection. He attempted to explain how evolution worked, and his theory is now regarded as correct. Natural selection states that animals with traits that are better suited to their environment will survive and reproduce more. This would explain how evolution works. Groups of animals with the most beneficial traits survive and are able to reproduce. While the other group has difficulty surviving and would therefore reproduce less. The variation between that type of animal would come from a random mutation which turned out to be useful. An animal may get a mutation which is either beneficial or disadvantageous to the organism (1). As time progresses there are a larger amount of animals with the beneficial trait, while there is a lot less animals with the older trait. Natural selection correlates to the phrase “survival of the fittest” meaning that animals with beneficial traits will survive, while those without will die (2). Theoretically, this could lead to an entire change of the population; leaving only the group that can survive easily and produce more offspring.
Before the industrial revolution and the arrival of great scientists, mostly everybody on Earth relied on origin myths and supernatural forces like God to explain the creation of our world exactly as it is right now (HE). Little did they know that life on Earth is way more complex than this… Until someone came up with a revolutionary theory: evolution. We are going to explore together the concepts of evolution, natural selection and its theory, and all the different types of evidence for evolution there is at this moment compared to what Darwin had at his time.
One of the first and central mechanisms proposed by Darwin during his life was that of "natural selection." Some may refer to this as "survival of the fittest," whereby species that produce offspring have been successful in doing so because they have produced random individual features which have lead them to live longer and pro-create offspring with the same inheritable desired features. Not all individuals will be able to reproduce, therefore only the fittest will "multiply, vary, let the strongest live and the weakest die," (Darwin, Charles (1968, 1859)) Origin of the Species.
Through this, I have learned about evolution. I find it shocking that one DNA sequence is what differentiates certain species from others. I have learned about switches, which takes a big role in the makeup of organisms and its diversity. Between Darwin’s knowledge and today’s knowledge, I am beginning to make connections about
In what he called the ‘survival of the fittest’, Darwin suggested that through the process of natural selection animals with particular characteristics, as a result of possessing advantageous alleles, will survive. However, those with maladaptive genes cannot adapt to changes in environmental conditions, so will die or become extinct. Dowling (1994) stated that this process depends on three principles: species diversity, interaction and the spread of a species as a result of differential amplification. Sexual selection is another component of Darwin’s research, which explains the best strategies adopted for passing on genes to offspring. Moreover, there are problems with Darwin’s theory such as his attempts to generalise animal behaviour to the way in which humans interact in their environment. However, he has presented compelling evidence which is very scientific in its approach and methodology. Furthermore, contrary to Darwin’s evolutionary idea of survival of an individual, Dawkins (1976) suggested that the survival of the genes is more important.
Genetic code is a set of rules that are stored in our DNA these codes are translated into protiens by Genetic expression. What Genetic expression does is it takes the stored information in the gentic code and and makes it into protiens and other molecules. The way the stored information is expressed determines what kind of animal it will be or whether a person will be short or tall have brown or blue eyes.So the relationship between the two would be the Genetic code is the cause and the genetic expression is the effect.
According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.
Throughout his Abstract of the Origin of Species, Darwin invites the reader to be open minded and understanding to his ideas through Naturalist eyes. The Naturalist attempts to use nature’s laws as to the forces that function in the world. Naturalists do not use spiritual or supernatural philosophies to answer any scientific inquiries or to answer any behaviors of the universe. Specifically in the Origin of Species, Darwin notes how: “Naturalists continually refer to external conditions, such as climate, food, etc., as the only possible cause of variation”(OoS,Abstrct). This rhetoric introduces how the variations under nature and variations through man-kind’s domestication expresses a natural selection of organisms. Through this natural selection, there is a struggle to survive with the variety of “great mutations in the forms of life”(Oos,Chptr10.). Life has shown to express completely different expressions of DNA within a species; to further import, Darwin brands nature as an Animal Kingdom that contains forms of life that change haphazardly. How do these variations come about? Conclusively, there are countless variables in which our organic tree becomes suspect to influence. Geological location, habits, Instincts and Genetic structure are a few of these
Chapter 7 revolves around beginnings of human research into the idea of evolution and an introduction of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. This chapter has given us, as students, more knowledge and insight into the topic of evolution. Since we were little kids, we always thought of evolution as the theory that establishes the link between humans and monkeys or that the phrase “Survival of the fittest” meant that the strongest always prevailed over the weak. However, this chapter has given us more detailed knowledge and background information about evolution, allowing us to lift these rumors and myths from our minds.
Evolution rarely follows a straight line from species to species. Instead, evolution is more like a growing tree. This tree is called a phylogenetic tree, phylo meaning race, and genetic meaning genes and heredity. As this tree continues to thrive, more branches begin to grow and other branches begin to die. Once a branch dies, no new branches can grow from it because the branch represents a species and when a species dies, the species cannot evolve into subspecies. Due to this, species do change over time because species compete for limited resources, new adaptations can be passed to the next generation, and the environment changes all the time. These are all proven by numerous types of evidence that are found over a period of time.
In the modern world, mankind is surrounding by a plethora of unique animals, plants, and other organism that have a certain natural design all their own. For instance, every organism appears to be best suited in their natural environment, as they are usually able thrive under unique conditions that may not optimal for every organism. Thus, it would appear as though divine intervention was necessary for this perfect design and placement of an organism into their environment. Consequently, this was the ideology for many centuries until Charles Darwin explained how these “illusions” fit into his theory of natural selection. Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection stated that the process by which forms of life having traits that better enable them to adapt to specific environmental pressures, such as predators, changes in climate, or competition for food or mates, will tend to survive and reproduce in greater numbers than others of their kind, thus ensuring the perpetuation of those favorable traits in succeeding generations (Cite). Although it is widely accepted that many of human’s physical traits are inherited from their parents, the notion that the mind has evolved and is designed to function is certain ways is still controversial (Cite). With that being said, the majority of theories that illustrate how the mind develops are still being debated. Moreover, the
Charles Darwin includes an effective beginning for his work, Natural Selection. By introducing his theory with a set of questions, interest to continue reading is developed. One question Darwin poses is the possibility of how one can survive, taking into account the circumstances of climate and traits. An interesting concept Darwin alludes to is that some individuals possess certain traits that enable them to survive. Another method implemented in the beginning of Darwin’s piece is the broadness of the context. Darwin does not go into any specifics right away, as the reader will learn more as they continue. “Let it be borne in mind how infinitely complex and close fitting are the mutual relations of all organic beings to each other and to their physical conditions of life” (Darwin 900). Darwin accounts for how unique each organism is, but generalizes the statement by categorizing all organisms as complex. By doing this, the reader is inclined to continue
Evolution is the key thread running throughout this text, signifying its importance to the author and readers. It is emphasized greatly because that is how we understand ourselves, our past, present and even the future. Through evolution we have discovered when the first organisms came around and how modifications led to the first fish to migrate to land about 375 million years
The article, “A Matter of Scale,” urges the audience to observe the small and extraordinary components of the biosphere and acknowledge its genetic variations as explained by Darwin’s theory of evolution. However, Kelly’s essay, “Evolution: An Article of Faith,” considers Darwin’s theory as a “false religion” suppressing God’s ability to create the “work of intelligence.” (Evolution) The heated debate over the credibility of Darwin’s theory of evolution has led to the division of scientific and religious groups. Devoted, religious people discover two major flaws with Darwin’s theory of evolution regarding the inaccuracies of the fossil record and the contradicting phrase “survival of the fittest” that has passed on harmful mutations to next