Darwin And Natural Selection Summary

Natural selection is a force of nature that is a catalyst to forever changing variations in species of plants and animals. Pertaining to the article, "Darwin and Natural Selection" by Dr. Dennis O'Neil, the Galapagos Islands helped Darwin to understand the idea of evolution. Darwin identified thirteen different species of finches that differ from beak size and shape. The term used for this variation today is called adaptive radiation; where different populations of the same species develop different characteristics due to contrasting environments. Moreover, Darwin realized the beak varieties were apparent to the differing diets of each population of finches. For example, in an environment that is more arid, finches with beaks suitable for eating

According to Charles Darwin, using or disusing a certain trait can determine how a species will change overtime, "I think there can be no doubt that use in our domestic animals has strengthened and enlarged certain parts, and disuse diminished them; and that such modifications are inherited," (Darwin 175). Thus, Darwin is implying that when a species uses a certain quality for survival that trait is further developed to increase the likelihood of survival; for example, the beak shapes of finches are morphed to be better suited for certain foods. Darwin also implies that when a certain trait is not used that ability is diminished; for example, a mole cannot see because it lives in the dark most of its life and does not rely on the ability of sight (175-204). Moreover, how an animal or plant adapts is dependent on the use or disuse of a variation, and according to the scholar Noguera-Solano, "the origin of the variation does not arise in order to resolve the organism's needs to adapt" (Noguera-Solano). This means that the origin of the variation is changed from the adaptation in organisms. Even more so, a variation comes from an original trait that adapts to become a new trait. The reason certain species can or cannot do something is based on this idea of use or disuse of a variation to

In Darwin's diary of his voyage on the H.M.S Beagle he recorded, "These lizards live entirely on vegetable productions… never drinking water, they like much the succulent Cactus, & for a piece of it they will, like dogs, struggle [and] seize it from another" (Darwin and Woram). This means that for one of the lizards to out-survive the other they must struggle to live by fighting each other for food; the lizard that wins will survive and produce offspring, while the lizard that loses will die off. Charles Darwin devotes a whole chapter to the "Struggle for Existence" in his book, the Origin of Species, by providing many examples of how organisms at some point must struggle to produce better offspring with traits more fit for survival. In predator versus prey the prey must devise a way to decrease their chances of being consumed by the predator; therefore, they struggle to not get eaten. The prey that avoids being processed because it was better suited for hiding will produce offspring that are also suited to hide from predators. Similarly, when climate destroys nature, the bits and pieces that beat out the climate will produce progeny that are more resistant to climate change. Furthermore, when parasites cannot exist on their own they use another species to protect them and therefore continue to exist. In all these cases organisms must struggle; how these organisms