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Modern Synthesis: Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection

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Modern Synthesis Evolution is a process that involves a change in the genetic material of a population of living organisms from one generation to the next. Evolution happens every day, even though the changes may be small. Charles Darwin was a scientist who came up with a theory that explain why evolution occurs. His theory included natural selection. Natural selection is the change in heritable traits of a population over time. It is the key mechanism of evolution. Gregor Mendel was a scientist who discovered modern genetics. He discovered modern genetics by experimenting in his garden. His experiments showed the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants. Together with Darwin’s evolution and Mendel’s genetics it creates modern synthesis. Modern synthesis is an “explanation for the evolution of Darwinism and Mendelian genetics” (Boyd and Silk 2015:61). Modern synthesis is a theory about how evolution works with genes, phenotypes, and population. Evolution is a change in gene frequency because of natural selection. Natural selection selects for traits. The traits are the phenotypes. Therefore, natural selections are selecting for the genes. The modern synthesis introduced multiple changes in how evolution and evolutionary processes were conceived. …show more content…

Natural selection chooses the survival trait that allows it to reproduce the good traits. For example, in a population of people there is a disease that kills a good amount of the population. The people who can survive that disease will live to reproduce. However, the ones that dies become weak because of their immune system. There evolution and chance of reproducing ends because they are dead. The ones who can survive can reproduce, and pass on the genes that does not carry the same disease. That generation of genes will never get the same disease

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In Neil Shubin’s book Your Inner Fish the genetic blueprint of human life, and all animal life, is revealed. The book’s main message is that everything, every feature humans or any other animal can have, is part of the same genetic history. The features and mechanisms that make up our bodies have evolved through “descent with modification” over time. Slight changes to cells, bones, and genes have all culminated into new species that while different still carry reminders of their evolutionary past. When most learn of evolution they learn humans and primates evolved from a common ancestor, and they stop there, they do not look any further.

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According to Wikipedia, the official explanation for the term natural selection is: the differential survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences in phenotype. Artificial selection, on the other hand, is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular desired traits. These two were first fully expounded by Charles Darwin in On the Origin of Species, and are often put together for comparison. The two combined are now believed to be the main process that brings about evolution. In the following essay, I’m going to state out some differences by focusing on some pros and cons of both of them.

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His main point was that as a species, including humans, continues to evolve, natural selection chooses the best traits to be inherited to the next generation. However, natural selection does not only affect physical traits but, “applies no less to intellectual and moral powers than to physical traits.” (Darwin 64)

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These days scientists know how you inherit characteristics from your parents. They're able to calculate probabilities of having a specific trait or getting a genetic disease according to the information from the parents and the family history. But how is this possible? To understand how traits pass from one living being to its descendants, we need to go back in time to the 19th century and a man named Gregor Mendel. Mendel was an Austrian monk and biologist who loved to work with plants.

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The views of heredity and exactly what it was have changed throughout time. Herbert Spencer stated that heredity was just another facet of evolution and was the basis for how mankind was bettered over time (Niemeyer, 2015). August Weismann, on the other hand, felt that heredity was traits passed down through generations that made mankind most equipped to handle changes and challenges (Neimeyer, 2015). Studies would eventually like heredity over time, minds would change and heredity would be linked to that of the chromosomes and genes that each individual carries and that were passed down from generations prior. The original assumptions as to just what made us who we are were established without any scientific backing.

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Genetic change happens in a group, but the resulting descendent can still clearly be distinguished as the same type of species. A real-life example of microevolution is dogs. When different types of dogs breed a new, but still similar, type of dog is

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Evolution is the process of change over time. It can be split in two questions, how did something living come from something that was not alive? And, how did things that were already living turn into other living things? Natural selection is when the “breeder: is the environment. This belief of natural selection came from Charles Darwin.

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The theory of Natural Selection allows more individuals to be produced each generation that can survive. Phenotypic variation is hereditary. Those individuals with hereditary traits better suitable to the environment with survive. This mechanism known as natural selection, which can be identified as genetic change in a population emerging from differential reproductive success. Thomas Malthus.

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Darwinism, as the name states, was introduced by Charles Darwin and expanded by other remarkable scientists and it states that all species of organisms will arise through the natural selection of minor, inherited changes that will enlarge the individual's ability to fight, survive and reproduce. As Allen Orr also mention in his article for The New Yorker “Evolution largely reflects the combined action of random mutation and natural selection” (Orr 236). The few basics of Darwinism are Variation, which means traits and features in individuals of species are slightly varied, second is inheritance, traits and features of individuals will be passed on their offspring, third competition, Species within species will fight for survival and reproduction and finally, Natural Selection, which states individuals born with traits and features have an advantage over the ones below them in terms of reproduction and survival also mostly likely passing it on to their offspring.

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Natural Selection is the long gradual process in which Biological traits either become more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment. In Darwin’s work The Origin of Species he also mentioned evidence for the Theory of Evolution from his voyage around the world on The H.M.S. Beagle. The Origin of Species is probably the most influential work on evolutionary biology. The Origin of Species will help prove my thesis because it introduces the ideas that we base on evolutionary biology today.

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Charles Darwin believed that in any population, individuals tend to resemble their parents through inheritance. Although we may not be able to tell them apart, all species have slight differences that help to distinguish them from one another. Typically, if the offspring of an individual acquire their parent's qualities, this guarantees certain parts of variety that will persevere; for instance, fit people will deliver fit offspring, and unfit people will not produce fit offspring for no obvious reason simply because they lack the trait to naturally be fit in the first place. As Darwin put it, “…if man can by patience select variations useful to him, why, under changing and complex conditions of life, should not variations useful to nature's living products often arise, and be preserved or

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This means that if genes were to affect the differences in all of these traits, they could also react to changes in natural selection. So we humans could still be evolving, because of all the genetic differences in the population, putting aside medicine and all advancements. Also, like the Rambam Maimonides Medical Journal says, “...human cultural evolution did not stop human populations from adapting to infectious diseases but rather most likely intensified human adaptive evolution to infectious

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Charles Darwin became famous for his theory of natural selection. This theory suggests that a change in heritability traits takes place in a population over time. This is due to random mutations that occur in the genome of an individual organism, and offspring can inherit these mutations. This was defined as the key to evolution, this is because random mutations arise in the genome of an individual. Until the 19th century, the prevailing view in western societies was that differences between individuals of species were uninteresting departures from their platonic ideals of created kinds.

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A disadvantage of artificial selection is stated on, “Lee County Students”, saying that “However, genetic modification is highly controversial.” This is a disadvantage because artificial selection is not fully proven to work, and there are not many studies that show it works easily. Another disadvantage of artificial selection is an unexpected result. There are many different outcomes of artificial selection and can be a surprise to the organism and owner, stated on “Pros and Cons of Artificial Selection”. A final disadvantage of artificial selection is shortened life.

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Three different sides will be discussed in this paper. First is the theory of natural selection, often called the survival of the fittest. Natural selection as quoted by the Merrium Webster Dictionary is, “a natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the perpetuation of genetic qualities best suited to that particular environment.” For example there is a litter of cats. One of these cats is a lot faster than the other cats and is therefore able to get food easier.

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