The Influence Of Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection

What is the Modern Synthesis? As defined by Boyd and Silk, modern synthesis is “an explanation for the evolution of continuously varying traits that combines the theory and empirical evidence of both Mendelian genetics and Darwinism” (Boyd and Silk 2015:A9)… Darwin’s theory of natural selection is an idea that can easily describe how organisms evolve to fit their environment. Natural selection is described by three postulates created by Darwin. The first postulate of natural selection is, “the ability of a population to expand is infinite, but the ability of any environment to support populations is always finite” (Boyd and Silk 2015:6). In other words, a population of species can thrive only if their resources are plentiful. When those resources

His findings are what shaped his theories about evolution. Two biologists at Princeton University organized a study that observed one of Darwin’s finches on the Galapagos Islands. This was a study that applied Darwin’s three postulates. While the study was taking place, the biologists noticed a change in the finches when a drought caused plants to create fewer seeds. The finches no longer had any supply of soft, easy-to-eat seeds. Instead, they were left with harder seeds. The drought helped the two from Princeton make a conclusion about the study. Since the drought caused many plants to produce less seeds, there was a shortage in food supply. Thus, causing many of the finches to starve. This caused a generous decrease in the finch population. It was also seen that the finches with deeper beaks could eat the harder seeds easier than finches with shallow beaks. The drought left part of the island with hard seeds only. The birds with shallow beaks could not eat the harder seeds with ease. The population of birds with deeper beaks escalated since they have a higher rate of survival in this area. Then after measuring the finches’ beaks, they found that finches who had survived the drought were passing on their deeper beaks to their offspring (Boyd and Silk 2015:6-8). These two biologists studying the finches on the Galapagos Islands were able to exemplify Darwin’s natural

Mendel had a lot of time one his hands. With this time, he would experiment with the inheritance of genes by growing pea plants. Mendel used only two variants with each gene. Mendel would study traits like color and texture (Boyd and Silk 2015:26). With each breeding cycle, Mendel would use different variations of “matings” to help determine what traits were recessive and what traits were dominant. When Mendel crossed the offspring of mixed pea-parents, he found that some peas were green and some peas were yellow. For every three plants with yellow seeds, one plant would be green (Boyd and Silk: 26). From his experiment, Mendel came up with two results. Stated by Boyd and Silk, the first conclusion that was made was, “The observed characteristics of organisms are determined jointly by two particles, one inherited from the mother and one from the father” (Boyd and Silk: 26). This means that each plant inherited on trait from the “mother” plant, and one trait from the “father” plant. The second idea that Mendel came up with was, “each of these two particles, or genes, is equally likely to be transmitted when gametes are formed” (Boyd and Silk 2015: 26). You have a fifty-fifty chance of inheriting something from the mother, versus something from the