Natural Selection Paragraph Essay

The documentary, “Darwin’s Dangerous Idea” tells the story of Charles Darwin’s conception of his theory of natural selection, and how it explains the evolutionary process and species adaptation. The story begins with a brief overview of his 5-year stint on the HMS Beagle as the ship's naturalist, during her South American voyage. The film shows how Mr. Darwin collected fossils and many species of animals and birds from many different regions especially the Galapagos Islands. It portrays Mr. Darwin’s return to England and his struggle between the mainstream religious beliefs and his personal beliefs of how different species came to be. Additionally, the documentary covers his presentation of fossils and ideas to the scientific community,

The first and quite possibly the best evidence for evolution is Homology. Homology is when species share similarities that are signs of common ancestry such as homologous structures. Homologous structures are ones that derive from a common ancestral structure (“Evidence of Evolution…”). These can prove to be very solid reasoning when arguing

As well as this, certain blood proteins are found in a number of species. When genetic code (DNA and RNA) is used by a cell, it builds amino acids in a sequence, which forms protein. Chemical tests can determine whether one species has the similar blood proteins to another, thus showing evidence of evolutionary relationships. Organisms with a common ancestor have a close number of amino acid sequences in common. For example, chimpanzees and humans have no difference in their amino acid protein count in their haemoglobin – evidence for a common ancestor.

Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.

While he was on the voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, a man named Charles Darwin viewed the relationship of plants and animals all over the world. He observed organisms on islands off the coast of South America and those on the mainland. His observations showed that these organisms were related, but not identical. This led Darwin into believing that over time, organisms must adapt to suit their environment. He explained his theories thoroughly in his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection.

Darwin found the most important findings at the Galapagos Islands. These islands were filled with exotic life. These creatures were prehistoric-like, and not afraid of humans. This island was abundant with similar animals with slight variations. He found finches with small beaks used for insects and berries, and finches with much tougher beaks used for nuts. He determined that these creatures mutate in order to survive in their environment. This theory became known as “survival of the fittest”, or Natural Selection. Natural Selection is natural variations among a specie to insure the species reproductive success. During his voyage around the world, Darwin collected 1,500 animals, and 4,000 samples of skin and bones of his specimens.

The Galapagos islands were what helped Darwin make a groundbreaking discovery. As he explored the islands, he noticed that there were many finches. Yet, there was something peculiar going on. The finches had different beaks, and ate different things. Darwin suspected that the finches were all from the same lineage, and the theory of evolution helps prove that. When it was first presented, it received a lot of criticism, with mockeries being made of Charles(One of which is exemplified by artistic representations of his head on a monkey’s body). As time went on, though, the public eventually warmed up to

In 1831, Charles Darwin thought he had “wasted” (his word) his college education. The 22-year-old was thus sent off by his father on a five-year journey that would change our understanding of our place in the nonhuman world. After five weeks on the Galápagos Islands, far out in the middle of the Pacific off the coast of Ecuador, Darwin’s observations and drawings of finches and tortoises led him to formulate the idea of natural selection, the centerpiece of his version of evolution. As he walked the sandy shorelines of these craggy volcanoes, he suddenly realized that the birds around him had variable beaks because natural selection had selected certain beaks as more useful than others: some for gathering seeds, others for crushing nuts, a

Charles Darwin was a scientist. He went to the Galapagos Islands. Two organisms he studied after his voyage at the Galapagos Islands were marine iguanas and and giant tortoises. He learned a lot of different interesting facts about the iguana. This iguana is the only aquatic lizard in the world. Darwin also thought that the iguana could adapt their ability to swim and dive for food. There noses are shorter than land iguanas. It helps them get their mouths on rocks and scrape off algae with their razor sharp teeth. They are dark gray to black. It helps them absorb sunlight to keep them warm. When the iguanas go to bed when the sun sets they go underneath big boulders to keep safe.

Darwin realized that the animals living on different islands were once members of the same species. These separate species would have evolved from an original South American ancestor species.

In the 1820’s Charles Darwin heard speakers talk about the latest theories of transmutation and started exploring this topic himself. Darwin’s tutor John Henslow at Cambridge recommended him as a ‘gentleman naturalist’ on a voyage around the world on HMS Beagle. Darwin accepted the challenge and over the following five years, Darwin visited four continents spending much of his time on land researching and collecting specimens and local geology.After surveying the coasts of South America, the ship stopped over in the Galapagos Islands.HMS Beagle made a five week stop at the Galapágos Islands.He encounters and studies species including finches, tortoises and mockingbirds there. “The vibrations throughout the island caused by explosions and

In 1835, the Beagle sailed from Lima, Peru the the Galapagos, a group of islands of the coast of South America, this is where he truly made the major observations that proved the theory of evolution. The name, Galapagos, stems from the Spanish word for giant tortoises, which was one of the many species Darwin studied there. He noticed that the same species of animals differed between the island. ("The Voyage of HMS Beagle.") Each island

Man could not evolve to any other state, because he was made in the ultimate state. He was made in the image and likeness of the Father so there was no need for evolution; hence, there was no sign of evolution from the beginning. Since sin came into the world, man has been deceived into thinking there is evolution. We are not talking about the theory of evolution that says man started from an amoeba or as an ape and eventually began to walk upright; not that evolution, but evolution in the sense of development. There are developments in the earth and therefore it can be considered as a form of evolution, but truly would it be classified as evolving, because man has not gotten better?

There is no debate that the world's first power of surviving relies on evolution, to a point where one does not have to look outside the box to witness it ... they're sitting on it. Many have mistaken the term "Evolution" with a state of randomness, an improvement or even a biogenesis. Others have related it to the origins of the universe, a social Darwinism that resulted in a massive diversity regarding theory and ideology. While people choose to rest their bodies on a chair in attempt to find an answer to its definition, some have rested their minds and accepted the fact that it only means change over time. It's no question that life on earth is related through common descent and has been changing for a long time, yet the real conflict

While on the Galápagos Islands, Darwin kept notebooks about all the species there, and he noticed the variety of tortoises on the island who were essential in explaining his theory of evolution. There are several species of tortoise present on the Galápagos Islands that are all very closely related, but slightly different. There are eleven presently surviving subspecies of Galápagos tortoises; furthermore, six of the eleven are found on different islands in the archipelago, and the other five are all found on a single island on five separate volcanoes with their own mini-ecosystems (PNAS). Although all of the species of Galápagos tortoise is different, they each have small differences that can include maximum adult size, shell shape, and the length of the neck and limbs. The tortoises of the islands are most closely related to the Chaco tortoises along the western coast of South America, and they most likely came to the Galápagos by “rafting” across the water (PNAS). Similar to the tortoises, Darwin observed that the Finches on the islands also had changed to match the environment. Spread among the islands were fourteen subspecies of finch whose