The Contributions Of Evolution : Charles Darwin And Natural Selection

The evolutionary path of a whale is a fascinating process of a terrestrial mammal that evolves into a marine mammal. This evolutionary path started with one of the earliest ancestors called “Pakicetus”. A Pakicetus was discovered to be a land animal with four legs that had teeth as carnivores. It skull structure was long, but this organism didn’t look like any marine animal. The scientist then discovered that on the skull’s ear region it was surrounded by a bony wall. This feature on an organism only was distinct from one type of species, scientist discovered that this animal “Pakicetus” was an ancestor of a whale. By comparing the early whales Pakicetus to the next generation of ancestors Ambulocetus, the Ambulocetus whale looks more like

The origin of modern day whales, a mystery that has puzzled paleontologists for years, may have just been solved with the discovery of an ankle bone. This discovery might sound simple and unimportant, but the bones of these ancient animals hold many unanswered questions and provide solid proof of origin and behavior. The relationship between whales and other animals has proven to be difficult because whales are warm-blooded, like humans, yet they live in the sea. The fact that they are warm-blooded suggests that they are related to some type of land animal. However, the questions of exactly which animal, and how whales evolved from land to water, have remained unanswered until now.

The biological perspective also can be called Biopsychological Perspective, is a large scientific perspective that undertake that human behaviour and thought processes have a biological fundamental points. Investigations with biological perspective into biochemistry of behaviour link with genetics and heritability, neurotransmitters and hormones, and the psychophysics of sensation and perception. Parts of biological perspective may include; Physiological psychology, neuroscience, pyschoneuroimunology and psychopharmacology. The biological perspective relies on scientific methods because of this, its scope of information is limited to variable that can be manipulated.

There’s no way a new idea or a technique simply occurs if it’s destined to become something very important or sustainable in our society. Great ideas stem from hard work and trial and error. And in order to develop new, concise, and acceptable knowledge, the information has to reach the people who will use it. Novel ideas are met with contemporary resistance because ideas cause change, which requires effort, challenges social norms, and acts as a catalyst for even more change. There is a certain amount of comfort in familiarity, but excellent ideas create breakthroughs and will mostly end up improving a situation.

In Charles Darwin’s Understanding Natural Selection, he states important points; “natural selection may modify and adapt” a species, species improve their traits in order to survive, and “the toughest, healthy males will leave the most offspring” (Darwin 927, 928, 929). In Darwin’s Understanding Natural selection, both natural and sexual selection play an important role on animals and the environment. For instance, natural selection can modify or adapt a species. “In social animals will adapt the structure of each individual for the benefit of the community” if they “profit by the selected change” (928).

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection remains one of the best known theories in science today. However, The Origin of Species had a significant impact on society when it was published in the late 19th century. The idea of evolution and natural selection uprooted many popular ideas at the time and led to the creation of new movements. Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection impacted 19th century society in a scientific perspective, a sociological perspective through the rise of social Darwinism, and a theological perspective in the debate between evolution and creationism.

From the beginning of Charles Darwin’s writing of the “Natural Selection; or The Survival of the Fittest,” as edited by Joseph Pendleton, we find that he feels that nothing holds a light to as genius as the works of natural selection when he verbalized, “Can we wonder, then, that nature's productions should be far 'truer' in character than man's productions; that they should be infinitely better adapted to the most complex conditions of life…,” (Darwin 42). Being more of a verbal expression than a question, Darwin clearly feels that in comparison to natural selection, the breeder (man) selection, which he also speaks of in his literature, does not stand a chance. By giving examples, Darwin shows that natural selection can make something transpire

Natural Selection, a key mechanism of evolution is the progressive process by which biological traits either become more or less common in a community or population as a result of inherited traits on different reproductive success of organisms with their environment. Charles Darwin in fact put together an articulate theory of evolution and supported it with a good amount of body evidence in 1859 when he published his book. Natural selection is too however a basic mechanism of evolution like mutation, migration and genetic drift. In order for natural selection to work, Darwin came up with 5 different theories that brought about evolution. The five theories are: evolution, common descent, species multiply, gradualism, and natural selection itself. Evolution is when species come and go through time, while they exist they change. Common descent is organisms are descended from one, or several common ancestors and have diversified from this original stock. Species multiply is the diversification of life involving populations of one species diverging until they become two separate species; this has probably occurred billions of times on earth. Gradualism is evolutionary change occurring through incremental small changes within populations; new species are not created suddenly. Animals and plants of all sorts undergo changes through natural selection. The peacock is a unique animal that stood out to me that undergoes natural selection.

Modern day society, even with all of its technological and cultural advancements, still struggles with the question of “How do we love?” To put it in simpler terms, what factors exactly play a role in who we as human beings choose in partners over another? What attracts us to one person and not another? It is hard to imagine a concrete formula that works for each and every individual on the planet, since there are infinitely too many factors that play into the development of attraction between individuals. The advent of society has served only to introduce even more possible factors of attraction, which further complicate the issue. Whereas animals may choose to mate with each other due to a display of superior genetics, humans have to contend

chain of being was a sort of tree of life, gradually sprouting upward from basic

By the 19th century the world was far removed from its belief in the supernatural. The discovery of genetics, and evolution made it possible to eventually analyze and categorize diseases. Charles Darwin utilized the work of Jean Lamarck in his theories but made his mark on the scientific world through his iconic choice of words “Natural Selection”. Darwin cataloged what he believed to be evolution when he journeyed to the Galapagos island where he studied Tortoises and Finches.

Charles Darwin's theory of evolution centres on the idea that species compete to survive, and favorable characteristics are passed on from one generation to the next. Darwin said that evolution took place by a process of natural selection or survival of the fittest. This meant that the animals and plants best suited to their surroundings survived and were able to pass on their genes to their offspring. The ones that weren't best suited died off and didn't get the chance to reproduce.

set out on his voyage to South America to analyze and collect data that would

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).

Some reasons why beaks were thought to be so useful for testing Darwin’s theory of natural selection was because it seemed that the more favorable variations in their beaks will be passed down. Another reason was because there were more variations in the beaks depending what the finches ate so he could study a variety of beaks.