Charles Darwin Research Paper

The Theory of Evolution Charles Darwin, the author of On The Origin of Species published in 1859, once said, “The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us; and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.” In the early 1800’s, people in Europe believed that the Earth was only 6,000 years old. They believed that all the animals and plants were created at the same time, and its characteristics have not changed ever since. The Theory of Evolution begins in the mind of the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809-1882). In 1831, Darwin set sails aboard the HMS Beagle to a scientific expedition in South America. As the naturalist of the voyage, it was his job to observe, collect and study every natural species he saw wherever

He began to acknowledge the existence of new species and fossils on the different continents he went to. He was skeptical about the common belief of the Earth’s age and the animals in it. By his observations in the South American coasts, he came to the conclusion that animal relationships are due to geographic proximity and not by the similarity in the environment. Darwin hypnotized his idea by telling that all specimens on Earth are descendants of one universal common ancestor. Flowers, bees, elephants, humans are all related. Darwin’s theory is backed up with a large body of testified geology, genetic biology and paleontology evidence, but it cannot be considered a law because some conclusions are drawn from observations that cannot be tested; for example: the idea of a common ancestor that was the original specie responsible to give lie to the rest of living things on Earth. There is not a concrete theory of origins, but scientists are currently searching for an answer. Scientists are trying to prove that atoms and chemical reactions in the environment created the first organism. The Christian Bible states that God created everything. At the moment, this question can only be answered

Microevolution is the change in allele frequencies that occurs within a population. This evolutionary change happens by five different processes in genetics according to Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium: mutation, nonrandom mating, selection (artificial or natural), genetic drift and gene flow. Mutation and nonrandom mating are not considered as important as the other three processes because they usually have little impact on the gene pool and on the allele frequencies. Selection is when favorable traits in an organism survive the environment conditions and become more common on future generations, whereas unfavorable conditions fade away. Genetic drift is the change in allele frequency in a population due to random sampling from one generation to the next. Finally, gene flow is the exchange of genes between populations. Migration and emigration of organisms are a major source of gene flow; for example, plant pollen. Bacterial strains that have antibiotic resistance are an example of microevolution by natural selection. Eventually, microevolution can lead to the rise of new biological species. Sometimes this is classified as macroevolution. Micro and macroevolution describe almost the same processes but in different scales. Microevolution focuses on small scales that include the changes in allele frequency, however macroevolution emphasizes on larger scales like families. The common descent is the idea