The Influence Of Darwin's Evidence On The Evolutionary Process

“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.

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.

Darwin’s process of natural selection has different components. Variation. Organisms (within populations) exhibit individual variation in appearance and behavior. These variations may involve body size, hair color, facial markings, voice properties, or number of offspring. On the other hand, some traits show little to no variation among individuals—for example, number of eyes in vertebrates.

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

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

The finches had evolved their beaks specifically to eat various kinds of foods on the islands they were on. Darwin wrote that when “an immigrant first settled on one of the islands, … it would undoubtedly be exposed to different conditions in the different islands [where] it would have to compete with a different set of organisms. “…Then, natural selection would probably favour different varieties in the different islands” (Darwin, 1859). The finches had developed different shaped beaks for their different food sources. The birds that were most suited for survival in their environment had more opportunities to breed and, as a result, their characteristics and traits were passed on to other generations. These birds that had further opportunities to breed were naturally selected, because they were better suited to survive, and thus, passed on the traits that helped their survival. Birds that did not have beaks appropriate for the food sources on the island had no chance to breed or pass on their traits, so the trait for that beak type was not as prevalent. This natural selection over time created a population of birds with beaks most fit for food sources on the islands.Biogeography investigates the distribution and spread of organisms across the earth, and provides compelling evidence of evolution. Darwin observed many different species while has was on the HMS Beagle. He noted that,

In 1859, Charles Darwin finally released his evolutionary theory “On the Origins of Species.” In this book, he described the process of natural selection and how certain alleles can be passed on to future generations. However the main focus of this was through animals and people, but not through the evolution of society. Early anthropologists in the nineteenth century took on this theory to help explain how societies have developed. However with this kind of thinking, it almost leads up to the assumption that those in modern societies (like Great Britain, America, and the rest of Europe) are more advanced than most of these societies that they try to explain about. Taking a look at Spencer’s cultural evolutionary model, in which we

Charles Darwin, while providing an excellent analysis of species development and change, struggled to comprehend human distinctions between gender, race and social class. In Darwin’s evaluation, these distinctions arose from sexual selection activities. For instance, he described the seemingly superior beauty of the aristocracy as a result to upper class gentlemen successfully competing for and selecting the most gorgeous women from any social class. Like Darwin, modern evolutionary psychologists describe men’s unanimously superior size and strength along with their propensities toward mental ferociousness and competitiveness as a result of sex selection mechanisms in male rivalry and female selection.

Two different organisms that Darwin studied after his voyage to Galapagos islands were iguanas and finches. Darwin learned that finches have different beaks. There beaks are different because they need a particular type of beak to be able to survive in their environment, and catch food. He thought that all these birds may have evolved from one species of finch. Darwin’s finches also helped show people how these animals adapted from generation to generation.He also noticed that animals born with advantage traits are more likely to survive and reproduce. His finches are a symbol of evolution. Darwin collected several species of finches on his voyage. They were: warbler finches, sharp beaked finches, small tree finches, and large tree finches,

Natural selection is the most important component of evolution. Natural selection is when species of a community better fit for survival and reproduction then the others in that community. In this essay about “Natural Selection”, Charles Darwin introduced the theory of natural selection. This essay will be discussing what is natural selection, what’s the roles of multiple organisms in natural selection, how does natural selection play in evolution, definitive evidence for or against, and what humans will look like in 1,000 years?

To support his idea for Natural Selection he used finches,tortoise as evidence, in them he noticed patterns of diversity. This observation led to the question, “Why would God produce various organisms and put them on identical islands?” this sparked the idea of Natural Selection. He noticed that all the islands were similar in climates but had various differences in the animals. On each different island he found a different type of finche depending on the environment they lived in. Some of them had big beaks, small beaks, needle like beaks, etc. Darwin noticed that the different beaks helped each of them survive and gave them an advantage in the environment over other animals. He noticed similar differences in tortoises, some had

It convinced Darwin on the thought of the enormous constraints limiting animal populations and of the large numbers that died compared to those who survived. (Wilson, 1983 p. 8). Population pressure, therefore, was the driving force of evolution by natural selection. Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selections was a brutal process in which death not life, was the rule (Wilson, 2983 p.8).

Darwin’s theory of evolution is the most commonly accepted theory because of the strong evidence that the theory is built on. One of the most famous examples of Darwin’s theory is the Galapagos finches. Darwin observed different finches from different islands of the Galapagos. He found that the finches from all the different islands had differently evolved beaks. Darwin

The animals most imperfect, simply organized, those suspected in a world hardly endowed with animality, are perhaps those by which nature began when, with a lot of time and favourable circumstances, it has wrought all the other (Lamarck, 1801: 12).