Darwin's Pangenesis Model

The 19th century was one of the most revolutionized eras in the history of the world. It is in this time period that the power shift was on a constant stir; empires falling, empires rising, and important discoveries that would change the world forever. Many Significant theories and belief systems were established, as well as the rise of some of the potent people in history. One person that is remembered for his work and celebrated for his theories is English biologist and scientist Charles Darwin. He is the sole theorists who conjured up the idea of human evolution, commonly known today as “Darwinism”. In effort to ensure this is recognized this paper continues on into the life of Charles Darwin, his story, his achievements,

Although Darwin’s (1809-1882) work in evolutionary observation might appear radically different from those focused on other areas, the theories he developed from these observation lead to such groundbreaking publishing’s as The Origin of Species. These intern caused an upset within the then accepted norms of philosophy and religion, had a profound impact on the academia, and further

Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection, a scientific theory that supported the belief of evolution, was manipulated and applied to different areas of life, and thus it became the shaping force in European thought in the last half of the nineteenth century. Darwin, through observation of organisms, determined that a system of natural selection controlled the evolution of species. He found that the organisms that were most fit and assimilated to the environment would survive. They would also reproduce so that over time they would eventually dominate in numbers over the organisms with weaker characteristics. This new theory was radical and interesting to the scientific world but its effects reach far beyond this small institution of

Natural selection, together with the rules of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel, stand at the basis of modern evolutionary biology.

Morphology is one type of evidence that natural selection occurred. Morphology is a branch of biology that deals with the study of the form and structure of organisms. Darwin discovers that a human, mole, bat, whale, salamander, bird, and Pterosaur have the same structure of arm, even though they look different. When carefully examining skeletons of these animals, he found that their bones and where they are located or aligned within the limb, are exactly the same as the human. Over time, the overall structure had not changed.

Sixteen years after his death and thirty five years after his experiments were shared with the public, the ways he was trying to explain heredity in; were finally understood. Thanks to Mendel the term “Neo-Darwinism” was discovered. “Neo-Darwinism” also known as “the modern evolutionary synthesis, generally denotes the integration of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection and Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics as the basis for biological inheritance, and mathematical population genetics.” (New World Encyclopedia 1). Many later discoveries about the way DNA was set up and how it made up animal and human genetics, helped understand how genetics were passed down generation to generation and why animals behaved the way

In this work, Charles Darwin frequently observes and references the variation in traits amongst individuals in a population. He observed that nature selects from existing varieties the traits most suited for a particular environment. He also proposes that species descend from common ancestors, undergoing various modifications in the course of time. This concept is described by Darwin as “descent with modification” or the new variations present in new generations resulting from natural selection. One of Darwin’s more convincing points is made by way of metaphor. He wrote, “The face of Nature may be compared to a yielding surface, with ten thousand sharp wedges packed close together and driven inwards with incessant blows, sometimes one wedge

Many scientists believe variations are caused by environmental factors, such as food availability, weather and more; and that species evolve when environmental conditions change to increase the species survival. Darwin censures this idea; he believed that the main cause of variation is due to reproduction (Chapter I). Darwin suggested that parents pass down specific characteristics to their offspring, and those variations are continued on in the following generations. The problem with Darwin’s theory of reproduction is that Darwin did not comprehend how or why some characteristics are perennial and how others are not. Darwin’s inferences on variations also conflict with the idea that God created species independently, which was widely understood by many people in a time where religion was prominent (Chapter II).

“Lamarck inheritance is an idea that today is known mainly from textbooks, where it is used to as a historical contrast for our modern understanding of genetic inheritance, which began with the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in the late 1800s. Despite all he got wrong, Lamarck can be credited with envisioning evolutionary change for the first time.” Not everyone liked Lamarck for religious points of views and some scientist just didn’t. He died in 1829.

Darwin distinguished that artificial selection had the ability to change both domesticated plants and animal’s appearances, therefore his theory was based on how natural selection affected characteristics within wild species (McFarland, 1999). Exposure to various condition such as environmental aspects causes changes within wild species, for instance

Hodge and Gregory Radick, have fittingly organized chapters along methodological lines, and the abruptness between sections is to some extent an artifact of decades of exciting and bewildering disputes over Darwin and Darwinism.... an ideal companion, ushering the reader into conversations already underway.... its aim is rather to shepherd the reader in search of deeper and more expansive

This is the study of different body structures of different species to know how they are adapted to different tasks and to understand the adapted changes that have occurred through the life dating from their ancestry to date. In Darwin’s study he tries to explain that different body study structures that one species can look the same have risen to perform different functions. For example birds and insects have wings but they use them differently. The birds use them to fly and to cool their bodies and insects only use them to fly. Some birds have wings but can’t fly for example the ostrich thus the homologous structures are different but have risen to perform similar functions (Thaler, D, 1999).

Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains the general laws by which any given species transforms into other varieties and species. Darwin extends the application of his theory to the entire hierarchy of classification and states that all forms of life have descended from one incredibly remote ancestor. The process of natural selection entails the divergence of character of specific varieties and the subsequent classification of once-related living forms as distinct entities on one or many levels of classification. The process occurs as a species varies slightly over the course of numerous generations. Through inheritance, natural selection preserves each variation that proves advantageous to that species in its

In this chapter, Darwin believed that variation is mostly due to reproduction and not environmental aspects and use of habits, like most scientists recognized. Meanwhile, he states that the extensive use of certain organs has made special body parts come to be. He supports his point by comparing the legs of a ducks that walks and the wings of a duck that fly. In reproduction, particular variations are passed down to an offspring by a parent, which are continued in following generations to come. This is the reason why sometimes it later animals or plants offspring, there it certain extraordinary traits that show up again. It is stated that it is unknown by scientist how the law of inheritance works with parents and their offspring and why traits

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.