Charles Robert Darwin (born February 12, 1809, † April 19, 1882)
With his work "On the Origin of Species", the naturalist Charles Darwin completely changed the human world view and the hitherto barely questioned history of creation. Even though Darwin himself was a theologian and initially struggled with the publication of his theory because he knew about the consequences. From the observations of his voyage across Tenerife, Cape Verde, Cape Town, Sidney, New Zealand and the Galapagos Islands he formulated his theory and coined the term "survival of the fittest", the survival of those who are best adapted to the environment in which the strongest in the "Struggle for life" (competition for resources) pass on their genes to the next generation.
Darwin's theory consists of several assumptions:
Reproduction: Individuals of a population produce more and more offspring than they would actually need to maintain their species.
Variation: The individual individuals in a population are never equal. They differ in several characteristics.
Selection: Those individuals who happen to be better adapted to existing environmental conditions than others have a selective advantage and survive more often. This allows them to bring their genes (including their traits) into the next generation more often than individuals who are not so well-adjusted.
Inheritance: Variations in the characteristics are inheritable to a certain extent.
In summary, it can therefore be said that selection leads to a long-term natural selection of individuals of a species that are better adapted by chance than their conspecifics. This changes the characteristics of a species over many generations.
Darwin's theory from today's point of view:
Although Darwin recognized the random occurrence of new features within the species, he was unable to establish where that change came from. Genetics in the twentieth century was the only way to explain this random change in traits through recombination and mutation and to scientifically validate Darwin's theory. Today Darwin's theory serves as the basis for the synthetic theory of evolution.
Summary
"Survival of the Fittest" = survival of the most adapted individuals
"Struggle for life" = competition for vital resources (such as water)
Organisms produce more offspring than required.
Individuals of one species never quite resemble each other.
Individuals who by chance are better adapted to the environment have more offspring.
The chance occurrence of new features can be explained by recombination and mutation.
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