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Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and adaption
A short essay about the EVOLUTION of Charles Darwin
Strengths and weaknesses of the evolutionary theory
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Recommended: Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and adaption
The theory of evolution is a very interesting, but also a bit of a controversial topic. The Merriam Webster dictionary defines evolution as “a theory that the differences between modern plants and animals are because of changes that happened by a natural process over a very long time.” Even though many people would and have disagreed with this following statement, the theory of evolution as of now is the best the best way of explaining why people and the animals which are, are on earth today.
Like all scientific discoveries the theory of evolution had to be discovered by someone, and this someone’s name was Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was an English biologist who was born in 1809; he was also a writer and known to be the father of biology. The following is based on the book “The Natural History of the Galapagos,” written by Ian Thornton. Darwin came up with the theory of evolution after he had spent time in the Galapagos Islands. While he was in the Galapagos Islands Darwin had noticed a specific breed of birds, these birds were known as the Galapagos Finches. What Charles had specifically noticed about the Galapagos finches was that the finches were made up of many different species; it was obvious that these birds were all related but each species had a specific variation. For example the birds would have different sized or shaped beaks. From this Darwin noticed that each separate groups of finches had separate habits, specifically eating habits. Charles noticed that the species which he referred to as ground finches were designed to obviously feed on what they could mainly find on the ground such as seeds and insects, also that the tree finches were designed to feed off of higher ground. Finally from all of this he was ...
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Alan Murray 30 December, 2013. 4 April,2014. http://www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/
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...G.E., Ioannou P.A., Scheer W.D., Herrera R.J. et al. 1994. Africa origin of human-specific polymorphic Alu insertions. Evolution Vol. 91: pp 12288-12292
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People normally tend to assume that plants in the past vary in differences and traits compared to species that are present. People have the impression that the past species had diverse weather conditions and nature related incidents forcing them adapt and become different from others. In the book, Andrew Knight had the idea that the food that was available could have tampered with their genes. Reproduction could have something to do with species changing. With plants, minor situations could determine whether they disperse a seed. It happens quickly and changes the genes of the plant causing a new formation that is disseminated through plant. Reproduction inheritance of genes is an important aspect when trying to determine ancestor’s life. By studying these pigeons, Darwin decides that all pigeons have originated from the rock-pigeon. Many people believe that pigeons have descended from a numerous amount of species and birds. Pigeons mate for life and by doing so the breeds are kept together and have markings in same areas of body. They mold into different species as years have passed because of the natural selection or an idea that Charles called unknown selection.
Vigilant, Linda. Stoneking, Mark. Harpending, Henry. et al. 1991. African Populations and Evolution of Human Mitochondrial DNA. Science 253: 1503-1507.
In Kurt Vonnegut’s novel Galápagos he writes of a futuristic society in where humans have evolved into small brained seal people. A world where knowledge is not a valued, and only a select few are able to achieve it because they are born with bigger brains. This novel brings may of the readers to think could this be a possibility for our own future? Is it already happening? While in George Orwell’s Shooting an Elephant he writes about the pressure of others causes us to do things we usually would not do. And in The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon states that in violence must be solved in more violence, that it is the only way to get what we are fighting for. Ideas from both Fanon and Orwell seem to be present in Vonnegut's book, that draw parallels within the three pieces of writing, and even to our own reality today.
Darwin did not come up with his theory out of nowhere. Like anyone else who has made discoveries, he was influenced by others. For quite a long time before Darwin, people didn't look beyond the Biblical creation story. Such things as fossils, primitive stone tools and visible layers in rock were said to have been placed on earth by God. There wasn't a great deal of work done on what we now call evolution, until the age of exploration began. Around that time people noticed that there were different types of humans in different parts of the world. There were several attempts to classify the various types of humans, but such classifications were generally extremely ethnocentric, and included ideas that have been proved incorrect. For a time people believed that creatures like Dr. Moreau's Beast People could and did exist in the world; explorers told fantastic tales of humans with the heads of dogs, or mermaids, or islands populated by only humans of only one gender. In the seventeenth century John Ray coined the term "species," but he believed that none of the species had changed since the day of creation. Linnaeus, who invented the system of binomial nomenclature used today to classify different species, was also a creationist.
What is evolution? Evolution in modern terms is fairly easy to understand. Evolution is the theory that life on earth began with a single celled organism that lived more that 3.5 billion years ago that slowly evolved into many diverse creatures over time. When you break down this theory into sections you get 6 factors: evolution, gradualism, speciation, common ancestry, natural selection and nonselective mechanisms of evolutionary change.
"History has two big stories to tell"--the story of how humans diverged over many millenia, and the story of how they later re-converged, "lac[ing] the world together with routes of contact." Pathfinders: A Global History of Exploration by Felipe Fernandez-Armesto chronicles human exploration throughout history beginning with the peopling of the earth through the earliest pathfinders and continuing up to the near-present age of globalization.
Evolution: - depends on current scientific theories to show the origin of man and the universe. There is a problem with this: Science is constantly changing. Newer and different theories are always being formed concerning our origin.
Regarding the finches on the islands, their beak mutations ranged from a beak made to crush and break through hard nuts to a small and soft beak that eats insects (Rands 2013). These mutations helped to further the understanding of the theory of evolution. The discovery of the many mutations that went on in just the small area of the Galapagos made scientist realize that there are still many new mutations that they have never encountered.
The formal scientific definition of theory is quite different from the everyday meaning of the word. It refers to a comprehensive explanation of some aspect of nature that is supported by a vast body of evidence ("Evolution Resources from the National Academies"). The idea of evolution is a widely accepted theory around the world; there are people who still hold their religious and often bronze aged ideas to explain how the life on earth started and continued. In a creation versus evolution debate, these ideas may help you explain evolution.
Charles Darwin also showed how new species were created on the acts of evolution. It is easily explained by having big differences from the effect of natural selection, which were considered to be new species. So back in the beginning, before the effects of evolution had occurred there was just one specie, which evolved to make the species that we know today. So somehow all species are somewhat connected. The basis of what Darwin was proving was that life on Earth is simply the result of billions of years of adaptation to the changing environments. That is why certain species can only live in certain climates. This can be explained with the color of your skin, or the growing of plants.
The evolutionary theory is the concept that species evolve over time through the mechanism of natural selection of survival and reproduction. Natural selection means acting on the assumption that various living organisms were produced by genetic diversity and mutation. The evolution theory may also be referred to as the philosophizing science. This theory states that all phenomena are derived from natural causes and can be explained by scientific laws without reference to a plan or purpose.
What is evolution and how does it work? Evolution is the theory of how one form of life changes into another form. Evolution also is the change in a population’s inherited traits from generation to generation. Evolution helps to explain why an animal, human, and plant looks the way it does and acts the way it does; it gives an explanation of the history of life. Genes come in many varieties, and the evolution helps to make it happen.
Charles Darwin, the English naturalist and geologist is attributed and accredited for his theory of evolution. His theory of evolution is based on the premise that strong heritable traits help individuals to survive in adverse and inimical environments.