INTRODUCTION
Darwinian Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
Background information
Even though evolution is an ancient concept, Charles Darwin brought up a new idea focusing on naturalistic modification of a population over time. He believed that species differ over time and space. In other words, after a period of time creatures undergo genetic mutations in their genetic code in which the beneficial mutations are preserved and the disadvantage mutations are eliminated. This concept he termed as natural selection. According to natural selection, all species have common ancestry and their diversity comes as a result of descent modifications. A species that develops functional advantages would pass the same traits to their offspring thus aiding their survival. Similarly, the disadvantaged members would be gradually eliminated naturally. Natural selection process occurs due to changes in organisms that results from heritable behavioral or physical traits. A change that enables an organism to adequately adapt to the environment contributes to their survival and also reproduction. This theory is similar to domestic breeding which also works to get rid of undesirable traits in a species over a given period of time.
Requirements for natural selection
The main components of natural selection include variation, heritability, and differential survival and reproduction. The component of variations affirms that creatures within a population often vary in behavior and appearance.
The fifth part of the evolution theory is natural selection. Natural selection is an idea that life doesn’t require creation or guidance from a supernatural being. Natural selection depends only on nature in which the population will adapt to their environment while the one who are unable to adapt will die off. But natural selection cannot provide perfection but can only help the creatures to evolve just enough to be able to survive.
The descendants of the species have been given changes from their ancestors. This is called natural selection. Natural selection is a type of evolution that animals go through when there is a hardship in their natural habitat. Most animals go through natural selection to survive, they can pass it on to their kin.
Evolution is the process of biological change by which descendants come to differ from their ancestors. Natural Selection is when an individual with the best trait survive and breed in more population. Larger populations of organisms with the desired traits will then occur and organisms will evolve. The four principles of Natural Selection are variation, over production, adaptation, and descent with modification. Charles Darwin, an English naturalist and geologist saw two major trends within organisms which were variation and adaptation. Variations are differences in individuals’ physical traits compared to other individuals. In the Galapagos Islands Darwin noticed that finches had different beak sizes and shapes. Darwin then concluded that finches with thicker beaks lived in areas where nuts were the main food source and finches with smaller beaks tended to live in areas where insects were the main food source. Adaptation are features that allow an organism to better survive in their environment. There has been many adaptations in animals but one of the best has been living in groups because animals can then “help each other find food, defend against predators and care for their young” (animalpanet, n.d.). Overproduction is when organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support. Darwin stated that all animals over produce since offspring can reach reproduction age and have offspring of their own. For example, “even a slow breeder
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
Natural selection is the evolutionary process by which heritable traits that best enables organisms to survive and reproduce in a particular environment are passed to ensuing generations. Organism within the same species may develop new characteristics based on their environment to ensure their survival. The new genetic development within the species maybe then passed on to their offspring. Those within the species that do not develop a new characteristic to adapt to the altering environment are left prone to disease, deformities, and even death or extinction.
Natural selection is an essential process of evolution proposed by Charles Darwin and generally accepted by the scientific community as the best explanation for the adaptation and specialization of organisms.
“I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection.” - Charles Darwin (5). Natural selection is the process by which organisms that possess favorable traits tend to survive and produce more offspring, passing down the favorable traits. Evolution and natural selection change the allele (a variant of a gene) frequencies in a population, and the organisms with the most favorable traits survive to reproduce. Over time the organisms become better adapted for the changing
Natural Selection is the process that results in the adaption of an organism to its environment by means of selectively reproducing changes in its genotype, or genetic constitution. The process by which environmental effects lead to varying degrees of reproductive success among individuals of a population of organisms with different hereditary characters, or traits. Alfred Russel Wallace and Charles Darwin developed the concept of natural selection. Darwin was a nineteenth century biologist who was offered a chance by his college to go on a five year sea voyage and study nature. He collected living and fossilized specimens from South America to bring back.
Natural selection is the process whereby species that are better equipped for survival in their environment are able to prolong their bloodline by reproducing. Advancements in these species, evolution, can be seen as a result of natural selections force. Natural selection can be broken down into three concepts that require it to operate. The first is the constant struggle a species face for survival, which results in the continuation of the successful branches of the species, as the others become extinct. The second requirement is a varying population, these more successful branches only stem from mutated groups or individuals whose features become beneficial when faced with such struggles. The third concept is the presence of a mechanism that allows these mutations to be passed on to the next generation, thus evolving the species. All three of these conditions are interrelated, and must take place in order for natural selection to play its role in the evolutionary process.
Natural selection states that those organisms that have characteristics that best suit to the environment will survive, reproduce and pass some characteristics to their offspring. In any population that reproduces sexually, there are large variations of inheritable characteristics. If various groups of the same species become isolated from each other, the environments in which the groups are isolated may result into different characteristics to suit that particular
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.
What does it mean to be human? Is humanity defined by our biology or our morality? Some combination of the two? Or, is it merely the ability to ask this very question, or ones exceedingly similar in form? Darwin’s The Descent of Man attempts to provide a foundational understanding to how we all got to where we are, and what our origins might say about our present. In particular, the way in which evolution is applied to various species, natural selection, is said to dictate which members of a certain species survive according to their proclivities determined by genetics. A natural question to arise from the assertions of the theory of natural selection is how this applies to humans now. It’s not as if one could kill their boss in order to
Darwin believed all plants and animals had changed from past families by natural selection. An example of natural selection would be the different coloration between beetles (Understanding Evolution, 2008). There are two different colored beetles, one is brown and the other is green. Since the environment cannot have an overpopulation, the green beetles will get consumed by birds and not be able to survive and reproduce as much as the brown beetles. The brown beetles have offspring because the trait has a genetic basis. When they produce more offspring, they become more common in the environment and if this process continues, the population of beetles will be mostly brown. Certain characteristics are innate within a species which help them reproduce and survive more than other species with no such inborn characteristics. These species will become more favorable and most common in the population. Darwin’s theory of natural selection favors organisms that are prone to adapting well to the environment, it makes it easy to pass on their genes stabilizing the population and making it stronger. Species begin to die out according to, what Darwin calls, survival of the fittest.
In order to understand evolution and natural selection you have got to know where it came from and how it came to be. First, let’s go all the way back to two of the four most commonly known, and most important, natural historians that encouraged the belief of an evolutionary process. Georges Buffon was a French naturalist during the 1700s. He was one of the first to reject the idea of a 6000 year old Earth. Instead, he believed it had to be much older. Buffon also proposed the idea that species did not arise separately, but rather shared common ancestors. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who was also a French naturalist, did not think that species became extinct, but that they evolved into different forms. He thought that changes in the environment triggered this evolving into different forms and that the evolving into different forms caused either a greater use or disuse of a structure. Both of these
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.