...Natural Selection is the scientific theory first proposed by English Naturalist, Charles Darwin as an explanation for evolution. Darwin first became aware of the capability of this theory when he studied variation in plants and animals during a five-year voyage around the world in the 19th century. He noticed whilst in the Galapagos Islands that the habitat of certain finches on the island changed their physical characteristics. Darwin mainly focused on the shape of the finches beak according to their habitat, concluding that even though the finch had a common ancestor, their beak shaped evolved according the foods that they ate in their habitat. He continued the development of this theory by studying hundreds more plants and animals than on...
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...some to be more familiar to others. This realization that there were similar species roaming the earth led to his theory of natural selection. On one of his journeys to the Galapagos Islands, Charles Darwin began to study finches, a bird found on many of the different islands. To his discovery he recognized that some of the finches had bigger beaks than others. He went on to find that the different islands had different types of living conditions and food resources. Due to the different food Charles concluded that there was a reason these birds were almost similar in size but their beaks were completely...
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...Charles Darwin wrote one of the most influential pieces of work of all time, “The Origin of Species” on his theory of natural selection. The voyage to South America, Australia, the Pacific Ocean and more specifically the Galápagos Islands on the H.M.S Beagle offered the prefect environment for Darwin to develop his theory and explore within his own scientific investigations. Although studying the natural environment in England could deliver similar observations regarding variances in species and the subtle yet on-going geological changed over long periods of time, it is reasonable to argue that the total enterprise experienced by Charles Darwin would not have been realized to the same magnitude as occurred on the voyage as compared to studying in England....
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...Evolution plays a major part in today; it provides a vast amount of information of the reproduction of animals and organism. Evolution is the process of which different kinds of living organisms are believed to have developed from recent and earlier forms during the history and past of the earth. There are many theories of evolution from many different scientists but the two most well-known theories are by Charles Darwin and Jean Baptise Lamarck. Charles Darwin: Charles Darwin was born in 1809. He used the term “Decent with modification” to explain his proposed theory of “Natural Selection”. He stated that all species evolved from species in the past. Organisms change through time, usually slowly and can evolve overtime to become a new species. He had a large amount of useful...
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...Background Information Charles Robert Darwin was a famed British naturalist, geologist and biologist who brought many fascinating ideas to the world of science and was credited for laying the foundations of the theory of evolution by natural selection, converting the views of many on the natural world. Darwin was born on the 12th February 1809 in the city of Shrewsbury, England and was the second youngest of six children. His father, Robert Darwin, was a physician and his grandfather, Erasmus Darwin was a distinguished botanist and philosopher. His mother, Susanna Wedgewood died when he was eight years old. Darwin was married to his first cousin, Emma Wedgewood for 43 years and had ten children. Education On October 1825, Charles Darwin applied...
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...Darwin, the most notable naturalist, collected, studied, and classified many organisms that no one in Europe had ever seen. His study of this amazing variety of organisms led him to develop his theory of ‘Natural Selection’, which explains how population evolve and how new species develop. According to the natural selection proposed by Darwin, in any population, there exists variation and an unequal ability of individuals to survive and reproduce, and only the best fir individuals survive and get to pass on their traits to offspring, known as survival of the fittest. Until 1845 in England, most pepper moth were light colored and few dark individuals could be found. With increasing industrialization, smoke and soot polluted the environment,...
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...Evolving from primates to humans took millions of years. Until the mid-1800s, many believed humans were a product of Intelligent Design. Charles Darwin and Gregor Mendel’s theories of evolution and genetics were a breakthrough in the scientific community and are still praised for their efforts to this day. From 1831-1836, Darwin went to the Galapagos islands and found that the finches there had various beak sizes, which led to his discovery of natural selection. Mendel bred thousands of pea plants to find correlation in traits between parent plants and their offspring, which is now known as heredity. Mendel’s genetics filled in the holes in Darwin’s theory and vice versa. Natural selection is a process that uses adaptations and mutations for...
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...Darwin studied types of plants and animals after his voyage to the Galapagos islands. He learned that some of the organisms were the same organism but with different traits and some of the organisms were adapted to the environment.The research supports Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection by teaching him that some organisms must adapt to different environments and reproduce. The ones that don't die off and the ones that have adapted to the changes reproduce and make more adapted organisms until all of the un-adapted organisms die and are replaced by the adapted ones until the next environmental change were all the organisms that were adapted to the old environment have to adapt or die if they adapt they reproduce to make more offspring...
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...Explain the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection Throughout The Blind Watchmaker Richard Dawkins attempts to use computer modeling to explain and defend various aspects of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Where Dawkins’ computer modeling comes into use in a significant way is discussed in Chapter 3 of his book titled, “Accumulating Small Change”. In it, Dawkins takes the reader through explanations of what cumulative selection is and how it builds up biological complexity in a meaningful, and relatively quick, way. He does this with computer modeling and continues on with various other examples of computer models to explain how genes work, what mutation looks like, and how it gets selected. The following is a look at how he uses computer modeling to these ends and what their limits are, essentially, what sort of questions they can answer. Dawkins begins Chapter 3 of The Blind Watchmaker by posing the question of how living things came into existence if not by chance. He explains that it was by a series of “gradual, step-by-step transformations” from entities simple enough to have come about existing by chance transitioning into entities which are incredibly complex and which could not have come to exist by chance alone (Dawkins 43). This transitional process is achieved through “nonrandom survival” and is known as cumulative selection (Dawkins 43). From here we are told about the difference between single-step selection and cumulative selection, that...
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...Darwin's Theory Of Evolution - A Theory in Crisis You are here: Science >> Darwin's Theory Of Evolution Darwin's Theory of Evolution - The Premise Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor: the birds and the bananas, the fishes and the flowers -- all related. Darwin's general theory presumes the development of life from non-life and stresses a purely naturalistic (undirected) "descent with modification". That is, complex creatures evolve from more simplistic ancestors naturally over time. In a nutshell, as random genetic mutations occur within an organism's genetic code, the beneficial mutations are preserved because they aid survival -- a process known as "natural selection." These beneficial mutations are passed on to the next generation. Over time, beneficial mutations accumulate and the result is an entirely different organism (not just a variation of the original, but an entirely different creature). Darwin's Theory of Evolution - Natural Selection While Darwin's Theory of Evolution is a relatively young archetype, the evolutionary worldview itself is as old as antiquity. Ancient Greek philosophers such as Anaximander postulated the development of life from non-life and the evolutionary descent of man from animal. Charles Darwin simply brought something new to the old philosophy -- a plausible mechanism called "natural selection." Natural selection acts to preserve...
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...French naturalist came up with a theory how organisms evolved, he believed that they evolved through their efforts to the response of the demand of their environment “Australia is home to many interesting phenomena, amongst them its weird and wonderful wildlife. 86% of plants, 84% of mammals and...
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...The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in heritable physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and have more offspring. Darwin's theory is fairly simple and has five main essential points: (1) variation exists in natural populations, (2) many more offspring are born each season than can possibly survive to maturity, (3) as a result, there is a struggle for existence, (4) characteristics beneficial in the struggle for existence will tend to become more common in the population, changing the characteristics of a species, (5)...
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...Simply Well Adapted? A. Review: Evolution is the central theme of biology. Evolutionary adaptation is a universal characteristic of living things (see Module 1.6). NOTE: More than any other idea in biology, evolutionary theory serves to tie the discipline together. T. Dobzhansky: “Nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of evolution.” B. If you look at any organism critically, you are first struck by the differences from other organisms. 1. Further observation often reveals that an organism’s features show some relationship to where the organism lives and what it does in its environment. 2. The blue-footed booby has enormous webbed feet, an oil producing gland that keeps the booby afloat, a nostril that can close under water that prevents water from entering the lungs, a gland that secrets salt from consumed sea water, and a torpedo-like body—all adaptations that make life on the sea feasible. I. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution Module 13.1 A sea voyage helped Darwin frame his theory of evolution. A. Awareness of each organism’s adaptations and how they fit the particular conditions of its environment helps us appreciate the natural world (Figure 13.1A). B. Early Greek philosophers held various views. Anaximander (about 2,500 years ago) suggested that life arose in water and that simpler forms preceded more complex forms of life. On the other hand, Aristotle,...
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...modern thought In the article, “Darwin’s Influence on Modern Thought” written by Ernst Mayr argues that Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories have influenced the thinking of every person, not just the scientific community. He states that no one with an education questions the legitimacy of Darwin’s theories which he believes are regarded as fact now. This article attempts to summarize what Mayr believes to be Darwin’s principal influences on modern thought. Evolution was Darwin’s first key influence. When this idea first surfaced, the majority of leading scientists and philosophers believed that the world was the creation of God, not the result of gradual natural forces. Mayr claimed that evolution must be a gradual process with its fundamental mechanism being natural selection. Mayr believes that Darwin’s theory of natural selection makes it pointless that the notion of teleological forces. If nature makes selections without help this leaves no room for dominant design, claims Mayr. The article suggests that natural selection is a product of randomness and chance, determinism, which suggests that all events are causal so that means they are also predictable. Darwin’s theory on human decent from apes, removed the opinion that man was uniquely advanced in the animal world. Mayr believed that even though the theory did explain our primitive fall, it did not weaken the idea of human supremacy and the fact that we are intelligent creatures with exceptional...
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...The Evolution of Menopause and the Grandmother Hypothesis Throughout the natural world trade-offs between reproductive success and longevity have been noted by scientists for many years. Most wild animals remain fertile until death, as do human males, and although human males do become less fertile with age, they in general experience no complete shutdown of fertility. Men as old as the age of 94 have been noted to father children (Diamond, 1996). The situation for human women is strikingly different. They undergo menopause, the permanent cessation of menstruation, by the time they are in their mid fifties (Lahdenpera et al., 2004). In fact, natural conception after the age of 50 is extremely rare. Menopause has become quite the evolutionary puzzle for modern scientists because natural selection favors increased reproduction, therefore increasing one’s own fitness. The essence of natural selection is that it promotes genes for traits that increase an animal’s number of descendents bearing those genes. Thus, the great question is: How could natural selection result in every female member of a species carrying genes that destroy her ability to leave more descendents? Many theories on the evolution of menopause have arisen in the past 50 years in an attempt to answer this question but they all also have key assumptions and limitations. Proponents of the Grandmother Hypothesis believe that their theory holds the greatest promise to answer this question. The Grandmother Hypothesis...
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