The Origin Of Species By Georges Cuvier

Then there was science and technology. Humans get more and more confident and want more and more from the nature: they expand their territory by invading others’ to the extent that other species have no habitat and get extinct; they use other species on research and don’t care about other species’ lives; they torture other species for ‘science’ (primary school kids dissect frogs alive). And with other species’ habitat and lives, we develop in more breadth and depth: our lifespan gets longer; we have safe medicines since they are tested on animals before open to use; we develop bionic technology like electronic frog eye which countless frogs die in the process of developing

On a day to day basis most people take for granite the lives we get to live, along with putting to much value on the extra things such as materialistic items. Also, the majority of humans are too invested in their personal lives or with themselves that they do not look at the big picture of how what we are doing now will effect us later. As humans are routines in our lives can bring us harm, and within time a we may become the sixth extinction. I believe we threaten human existence as a species and it can eventually lead to destroying our own comfortable lives we have created for ourselves.

Alexander Von Humboldt was a Prussian naturalist whose work has helped shape and define our modern understanding of nature. He used enlightenment rationalism to navigate his way through life and his deep connection to his natural environment inspired a visionary movement in ushering out the monotheistic creationist worldview. “Humboldt’s books, diaries and letters reveal a visionary, a thinker far ahead of his time. He invented isotherms...discovered the magnetic equator...came up with the idea of vegetation and climate zones that snake across the globe…and revolutionized the way we see the natural world.” (Invention of Nature, 5). Although his work was extensive, author of ‘The Invention of Nature, Andrea Wulf suggests that his work has largely been forgotten due to his polymath approach of including art, history, poetry and politics that made him unfavorable. While Humboldt gave us our concept of nature itself, “the irony is that Humboldt’s views have become so self-evident that we have largely forgotten the man behind them.” However, although his work individual work may be overlooked, Humboldt’s success in making science more accessible work and as a result, his legacy lives on as the source of inspiration for many influential thinkers throughout history.

The late Stephen Jay Gould, a noted paleontologist who once described himself as an “agnostic leaning towards atheism,” wrote the classic treatise Evolution as Fact and Theory for Discover magazine back in 1981. His distinguished career and scientific achievements did earn him respect amongst his peers, but to the general public he is best known for his popular science writings and, to smaller circles, as a champion of evolution. As his treatise was written for a non-academic, science themed magazine, a basic understanding of science, and specifically evolutionary mechanics, was assumed of his audience. The treatise itself is on the often overlapping distinction between “theory” and “fact”; two words, he asserts, that creationists

The third part to the human dilemma is that all nonhuman species have evolved to survive their physical habitats, and the human species originally evolved to do this as well. However, human beings have altered the world more in the last ten thousand years, than the ancestors did in the first four million years. We have changed the environment to fit our needs, instead of changing our needs to fit the environment. Most importantly, humans have built entirely new environments, such as farms, villages, cities and towns. The cycling pattern of human expansion and creations has changed the human race from small groups of hunters and gatherers, into a very complex civilization.

Charles Darwin believed in Evolution and natural selection. Evolution according to Charles Darwin was that all life is related in some way and has descended from a common ancestor. As random genetic mutations occur in an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations aid in survival – this is called natural selection. Organisms that develop random mutations are better adapted to their environment and tend to survive and produce more offspring. Lamarck’s viewpoint on evolution was the law of use and disuse. He hypothesised that organisms react to changes in their environment by changing or strengthening a certain organ. Whilst an organ will stop working or disappear if it is stopped being used. The fault is this theory was that it could not explain how these strengthened or unused organs are passed on to other generations of the same organism. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is right, but Lamarck wasn’t far off the mark. A good example of Lamarck’s law of use and disuse in the Homo sapiens is that of the appendix. The appendix is an organ which is commonly believed to have ‘stopped working’, this organ was the remnant of large fermenting gut for plant life. This organ has ceased to work as Homo sapiens have stopped eating plant matter and started to eat organisms consisting of meat. This somewhat strengthens Lamarck’s

Lamarck realized that although the Museum’s collection was thoroughly enormous, it was also thoroughly in chaos; there was very poor organization at the time. Lamarck’s research was, at the time, considered the least prestigious of the fields of biology to study, but what not one of his colleagues would realize is that through his studies, he himself had created a new field of biology. After studying, classifying, and lecturing on everything from worms to spiders, and everything in between, for around ten years, Lamarck published two books, one of zoology, and the other on paleontology. His most famous one was the Philosophie zooloique , published in 1809, and very much portraying Lamarck’s ideas on evolution.

As humans evolve, they will change. Through the years, humans will both change mentally and physically. Through research and reasoning, people can only predict what might be the next human evolution. Much of what is predicted is based on the world that humans live in today. Some day, humans might be even be able to change their own genetics as science and technology advances.

Charles Darwin, a naturalist and geologist, developed a widely accepted evolutionary theory: all species of organisms advance and flourish through promoting the individual’s ability to survive and reproduce. Thus it is understandable that humans would hold their interests above those of animals

Natural selection is the process in which heritable traits that make it more likely for organisms to survive and successfully reproduce become more common in a population over successive generations. Each of us individuals is specifically shaped and formed by our own genetic pattern. We inherit this pattern half from are mother and half from are father. The cause of this is the proximate cause that led it’s phenotype to ultimate causes. Much of we know today about evolution derives from the late great pioneer, Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was an english naturalist that even from an early age was very interested in outdoor pursuits. Early in his prep career his father tried sending him to the University of Edinburg to pursue his medical

There have been five major mass extinction on earth triggered by a distinguishable event, but in The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History, Elizabeth Kolbert writes of the narrative of the sixth extinction caused directly by human impact. The book identifies the effects of human activity on how, over humans history on earth, the natural world has been affected. Every environmental impact stems into three basic groups of global problems to nature: Pollution, Habitat loss and Invasive Species. Kolbert explains that each impact can be traced back to one source, human industrial development. With each impact various types of life in the natural world are affected. Deforestation, urbanization, and sea level rise contribute to habitat loss worldwide. When humans began to travel they also brought invasive species and disease along with them; as boats only became bigger more and more invasive species travel. This reverse engineering of the planet species, brings new species that don’t have any natural predators, thus having an easier time driving native species out to endangerment or extinction. The different outcomes that come from human pollution is separated throughout the book, but the idea remains constant; with the development of human culture, pollution has drastically impacted a vast extent of species habitats and their environment.

Contrary to the popular belief that Charles Darwin first thought of the theory of biological evolution, it was actually an idea that had been around since the ancient Greeks. Though the idea had been apparent since then, the term “Evolution” first appeared in 1647 but wasn’t talking about the evolution of organisms. Instead evolution was used to describe the progression of something from simpler beings. However, it was Darwin who introduced the idea of Natural Selection. Natural selection is a process in which species slowly evolve by gaining heritable traits that help them survive better in their ecosystem. This idea helped push the ideal of “survival of the fittest” which is the continued existence of organisms

In the origin of the species Darwin argues that every species adapt in order to survive. Natural selection is the form where parents transfer what is necessary to live in a certain environment and with time the descendants start changing accordingly to the necessities to stay alive. Darwin mentions that those species that change will survive and prosper, but on the other hand, the species incapable of changing will die and become

Natural selection is the process where organisms that have more advantageous adaptions that benefit its survival in its environment then breed and produce offspring with similar traits that then have a greater chance of survival. For natural selection to occur there are essential elements that are required; variation, heritability and excess production. For the formation of a new species there must be variation within a species so that some may have slightly better adaptions to the climate, diseases or other survival traits like better camouflage. The organisms that possess these adaptions are sometimes called more fit; this is called ‘survival of the fittest’. The ‘fitter’ organisms will then reproduce and their offspring will inherit the

Charles Darwin broached the theory of natural selection in his book the Origin of Species, which has been considered the basis of evolutionary biology to this day. Natural selection is when populations of a species evolve over the course of many generations. Darwin believed that species were not created separately, but instead, species were derived from one another. In other words, the evolution of species creates many variations among creatures, and this is because all of those species came from a common ancestor, and characteristics changed to increase the species chance of survival.