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How evolution works
Fossils as evidence of evolution
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Evolution rarely follows a straight line from species to species. Instead, evolution is more like a growing tree. This tree continues to thrive as more branches begin to appear and other branches begin to die. Due to this, species change over time because species compete for limited resources, positive and negative variations can be passed to the next generation, the environment changes all the time, and numerous types of evidence prove that species change over time.
Basic thesis statement: Species change over time because competition between species makes an organism evolve so it can survive longer when competing for food, water, territory, finding a mate, escaping from predators, and more. In the ‘Gene Pools and Evolution’ activity, we found
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In ‘NOVA LABS; The Evolution Lab,’we found that creating a phylogenetic tree can show how different species are related to each other. This means that history can prove the species change over time because one branch represents a single species that had a speciation. When a speciation occurs, over time, more branches appear with more species on each, which makes the tree have more biodiversity. In ‘The Stickleback Fish - A Story of Modern Evolution’ activity, it states, “The Three-Spined Stickleback is a model organism for studies in evolution.” This means that history can prove the species change over time because the Three-Spined Stickleback fish has a short enough lifespan for biologists to breed and create genetic crosses between vastly different looking individuals. In the ‘Comparative Anatomy’ activity, we found that when looking at two different species, you can see how they are related because of certain traits they both possess. This means that history can prove that species change over time because similar and exact traits show that two or more species are related and how, over time, these two species have changed. In conclusion, species change over time because fossil records, relative dating, carbon dating, and uranium dating can all help improve the geological
Thousands of animals are put to sleep each year due to not having any available homes for them to be adopted. According to Jennifer Sexton and Tom Warhol in Domestic Animal Overpopulation, “The average female cat can produce two litters of six kittens per year, a female dog can produce one litter of six or more puppies per year, making pet overpopulation a significant problem.” Animal overpopulation is costing money and you can help the pets with spay and neutering programs. A new solution is mandatory contracts for breeders and spay and neuter programs. This paper will talk about spay and neuter programs, contracts for breeders, and why some people don’t think animal overpopulation is a problem. Thankfully there are solutions to this issue of animal overpopulation.
The second of Tinbergen’s questions Phylogeny looks at the evolutionary explanations of development, as opposed to just how behaviour has adapted, including mutations in response to environmental changes. Some of these mutations remain in species even after necessity has gone, and can influence future characteristics of that species. The third of Tinbergen’s questions looks at Causation,...
Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection explains the general laws by which any given species transforms into other varieties and species. Darwin extends the application of his theory to the entire hierarchy of classification and states that all forms of life have descended from one incredibly remote ancestor. The process of natural selection entails the divergence of character of specific varieties and the subsequent classification of once-related living forms as distinct entities on one or many levels of classification. The process occurs as a species varies slightly over the course of numerous generations. Through inheritance, natural selection preserves each variation that proves advantageous to that species in its present circumstances of living, which include its interaction with closely related species in the “struggle for existence” (Darwin 62).
Some individuals have developed different traits to help them in the process of intra-sexual competition. The organisms with more distinctive traits have greater reproductive success. More genes of those traits are then ‘selected’ and are passed onto the offspring of the organisms. Throughout time variability in these traits becomes
Evolution in general, is a hard concept to grasp. There are multiple factors that effect the outcome a species, for example: genetics, nurture, nature, and the environment all play an important role. It was once said that species do not survive due to the fact that they are the strongest or the most intelligent, but because that species is the most responsive to change.
The main arguments in Evolution is the theory of natural selection, radiometric dating, and adaptation. The four parts to the theory of natural selection are that more individuals are produced each generation that can survive, phenotypic variation exists among individuals and the variation is heritable, those individuals with heritable traits better suited to the environment will survive, when reproductive isolation occurs new species will form. In simpler terms, this means that the organisms that are better suited to their environment will survive, animals have different genes and these genes change and can be inherited, and when one species is separated into two physically blocked areas, they will form new species. Radiometric dating as stated by Dr. Roger C. Wiens is “the process of determining the age of rocks from the decay of their radioactive elements”. This works through something called the half life of radioactive materials. The half life of radioactive materials is the amount of time it takes for radioactivity to fall to half of its original value. In simple terms, they measure how much a radioactive material has decayed and they get the age from that. Adaptation is similar to one of the four parts of natural selection. Adaptation of organisms is the variation among individuals in a species. The change from the parents to the offspring to better fit their ecological zone, is adaptation. Those are the three major facts that prove
We as humans are alway changing and growing this idea however is the same for all living things. This idea was develop by the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin. This theory provide insight to how evolution has changed species over time. Which, through this article I will be addressing the mechanisms of evolution as well as how Charles Darwin helps to provide insight to how the mechanisms of evolution works.
According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.
Species that now populate the Earth come from other species that existed in the past, through a process of descent with modification. Biological evolution is the historical process of transformation from one species in other descendant species, including the extinction of most of the species that have ever existed. One of the most romantic ideas in the evolution of life is that any two living organisms, different as they are, they share a common ancestor sometime in the past. We and any current chimpanzee share an ancestor of 5 million years. We also have a common ancestor with any bacteria that exist today, although time this predecessor to soar in this case more than 3000 million years. However, the idea of evolution by itself is an open concept, is a mechanical description of change does not say anything about the engine or the creative force behind the transformation. Thus, in principle, evolution can be driven by immanent laws of matter, or a divine creator or by blind forces,
The concept of transitional species is an important and complex notion in evolutionary biology. To begin with, there is no such thing as transitional species since all living things were always evolving in the past, not stopping at one stage or another, and they will continue to evolve in the future. In terms of evolutionary biology, we use the concept of transitional species as a way to dim ambiguity. Much like the use of the Linnean taxonomic system of species, we come up with concepts like transitional species to organize and classify species in order to understand their evolutionary roots and how those species changed through life’s history to become what they are today. “In the same way that the concept of species can be provisionally meaningful to describe organisms at a single point in time, the concept of transitional species can be provisionally meaningful to describe organisms over a length of time, usually quite a long time, such as hundreds of thousands or millions of years” (111). Though it can be difficult to distinguish what can be considered an ancestral species from another, the fossil record can show us how species change through time as they develop ways to adapt to stresses found in their environments. “In the modern sense, organisms or fossils that show intermediate stages between ancestral and that of the current state are referred to as transitional species” (222). The concept of transitional species is, in essence, fairly straight forward. This paper will outline the concept of transitional (or sometimes termed intermediate) species and the latter’s role in evolutionary biology, as well as go in depth about several common transitional species: Tiktaalik, an animal at the cusp between life in the water and ...
Modern-day genetic technology has granted mankind with the opportunity to bring back extinct species from the dead. If humans have come to possess the DNA from an extinct animal population, it is possible to create an identical clone of the animal in question, effectively “bringing it back from the dead”. Many ethical dilemmas surround the practice of de-extinction, and rightfully so. Recreating an extinct species could produce groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs, generating exciting opportunities for future genetics-based research. However, there could also be monumental consequences: the newly revived, once-extinct species might destroy the ecological equilibrium of modern Earth
Evolution is not a simple idea of change over time. Tons of things variate over time: “trees lose their leaves, mountain ranges rise and erode,” but these are not instances of biological evolution due to how they don 't “involve descent through genetic inheritance.” The primary idea of biological evolution is “all
Evolution is a on going process and the evolution is made up of many different processes. It allows species to become what they are, how they act, and what they will become. It also allows species to be able to survive. It produces new and different species through ancestral populations of organisms and moves them to new population. Both natural selection and genetic drift decrease genetic variation. If they were the only mechanisms of evolution, populations would eventually become homogeneous and further evolution would be impossible. There are, however, mechanisms that replace variation depleted by selection and drift (Colby).
Many scientists in the past, such as Aristotle and Plato, believed that there were no changes in populations; however, other scientists, such as Darwin and Wallace, arose and argued that species inherit heritable traits from common ancestors and environmental forces drives out certain heritable traits that makes the species better suited to survive or be more “fit” for that environment. Therefore, species do change over a period of time and they were able to support their theory by showing that evolution does occur. There were four basic mechanisms of evolution in their theory: mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection. Natural selection is the gradual process by which heritable traits that makes it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce increases, whereas there is a decline in those who do have those beneficial heritable traits (Natural Selection). For example, there is a decrease in rain which causes a drought in the finches’ environment. The seeds in the finches’ environment would not be soft enough for the smaller and weaker beak finches to break; therefore, they cannot compete with the larger and stronger beak finches for food. The larger and stronger beak finches has a heritable trait that helps them survive and reproduce better than others for that particular environment which makes them categorized under natural selection (Freeman, 2002).
Darwin writes on how a species will adapt to its environment given enough time. When an animal gains a genetic edge over its competitors, be they of the same species or of another genus altogether, the animal has increased its chance of either procreation or adaptation. When this animal has this beneficial variance, the advantage becomes his and because of this, the trait is then passed on to the animals offspring.