Charles Darwin's Theory Of Evolution By Natural Selection

The ‘Theory of Evolution’ explains how organisms have adapted over large periods of time due to heritable, physical or behavioural changes. The diversity of life we have come to know today has happened as a result of change through natural selection. Also, called survival of the fittest, meaning the ability of which a species reproduces and survives. Natural selection can also depend on a species ability to attract a mate, known as Sexual Selection. Change can occur in a whole species over a generation, and given enough time can create entirely new species in a process which is called ‘macroevolution’. This can turn dinosaurs into birds and ancestors of apes into humans. Charles Darwin developed his theory before DNA was discovered. (Heather

He grouped plants according to how many reproductive organs they contained and where they were placed (NA, 2000). He then went on the group animals according to their; physical form, traits, methods of gathering food, similarities and body parts. (Janice Vancleave, 2010). George Cuvier was the first to claim that fossils were not a trick of God but in-fact real and to acknowledge that extinction occurred (Paula Mikkelsen and Robin Henne). He became a world-renowned expert on the anatomy of animals, where he would use his knowledge to interpret fossils (Dennis O’Neil). Later Charles Darwin formulated the first recognised theories of evolution, with the influence from many other scientist and their findings (Heather Scoville, 2017). DNA was yet to be discovered when Charles Darwin formulated his theory, until Gregor Mendel experimented on peas to uncover how inheritance takes place (www.genome.com). He formulated many principles on the traits of inheritance and formed the basis of modern day genetics (Paula Mikkelsen and Robin

Later in the 1700s, Carolus Linnaeus created a binomial nomenclature system called ‘Systema Naturae’. Then in the late 1800s, Karl Grobben named the two main animal groups; Protostomia and Deutrerostomia (Paula Mikkelsen and Robin Henne). Without the classification of living organisms, scientists would be unable to keep record of what species have been discovered, or gone extinct. It also visually represents how evolution could have taken place and the modern synthesis would be unreliable because there would be no record of living organisms. Aristotle classified organisms according to their traits and similarities, through the groups and subgroups of; Animal: land, water, air and Plant: small, medium, large. Unlike Carolus Linnaeus, who classified them according to; Kingdom, class, order, genus, species and variety, 2000 years later. He then continued to sort organisms according to; traits, similarities, body parts, physical form and methods of gathering food (Janice Vancleave, 2010). Due to Aristotle’s system many living organisms did not belong, for example; frogs are born in the water with gills but then move to land and grow lungs when they are older, so which group would frogs belong in? However, with Linnaeus’ system organisms were sorted into many more groups allowing meaning many more organism could be classified, meaning that frogs now belonged in the class