There are many different beliefs about evolution prior to Charles Darwin. These began during the 17th century up into the early 19th century. In the 17th century, James Ussher, a Anglican archbishop of Armagh in northern Ireland, reinforced a traditional Judeo-Christian version of creationism. He fixed the date of creation at 9:00 am, October 23, 4004 B.C.

In the 18th century the Swedish botanist Carl Linneaus, classified organisms based on categories; genus and species. The concept of genus and species was actually developed by John Ray in the 1600’s, but it was Linneaus who used the system to name modern humans homo sapiens and placed modern humans in the order primates, with apes, monkeys, and prosimians. This was controversial at the time because it implied that people were part of nature, alongside animals and plants.

Before, it was believed that life forms were fixed, denying any evolutionary change. French mathematician and naturalist, George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, said that living things do indeed “evolve” over long periods of time, unnoticeable to humans, due to influences from environments or even chance. He also believed that the earth is much older than 6000 years old (at least 75,000... We now know it is much much older!!).

In the late 18th century, evolutionists Eramus Darwin, grandfather of the Charles Darwin, believed that evolution has occurred in living things, including humans, but was rather confused of why and what was responsible for this change. In his later work he suggested that earth and life on it have been evolving for “millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind.”

Other than evolution in organisms, change in the earth as a whole has been carefully examined. Catastrophic events helped shaped the world we live in today. Charles Lyell documented that earth is very old and that natural processes such as volcanoes, earthquakes, glacier movements, in the past operate as they do today. Lyell provided evidence for the theory of uniformitarianism, developed by Scottish geologist, James Hutton, the idea that forces acting today, were the same as in the past.

Read more about Pre-Darwinian Theories!

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I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

The following is a media review and summary.

Our planet is the only known planet that can sustain life. But life on earth has developed into a vast collection of species over time. In all, there are over 100 million species on earth. There are over 200 species of monkeys, 1000 different species of bats, over 350,000 species of Beatles, and over 250,000 species of flowering plants. David Attenborough wrote and presented "Charles Darwin and the Tree of Life" to show the remarkable past of Charles Darwin and his contemporaries, and the theory of natural selection, evolution, and diversity.

Charles Darwin Seated

Henry Maull (1829–1914) and John Fox (1832–1907)  

Charles Darwin was the companion of the captain of ship, The Beagle, at the age of 22. They landed in Brazil and the Galapagos Island. Their he found several species of beetles. He examined every single one he found and took specimens since he liked insects. Later finding a diversity of tortoises and finches, he wondered why they look so different. He then continued looking about the island documenting his finds. 

Finally he developed the theory that species of animals are not fixed, species slowly change throughout time. 

How could animals of the same species develop different characteristics? He named this natural selection. Natural selection means that the fittest within a species survive within the environment. 

Certain traits and characteristics can help the individual survive its environment and allow it to reproduce. The traits are then passed to the offspring over time, that specific trait needed to survive in the specific environment becomes more frequent in offspring.

Darwin's
On the Origin of Species

An example of natural selection Darwin used was the different beaks within the finches and the different shells the tortoises had. The finches with a thin beak are specialized at catching bugs in the air, while the finches with wider sharper beaks are specialized in cracking open nuts to obtain food. Tortoises with a round shell tended to eat food on the ground and tortoises with a peeked shell allowed them to reach higher plants. The different beaks and shells is evidence that certain traits are specialized within a certain environment.

The actions of Charles Darwin proved that species are not fixed. Species slowly change over time to develop traits that best help to survive in their environments.

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.

Evolution is the process by which populations of organisms acquire and pass on traits from generation to generation, affecting the overall makeup of the population and even leading to the emergence of new species. The terms organic evolution or biological evolution are often used to distinguish this meaning from other usages.

Evolution of a species is determined by many factors. Natural selection being the most determining factor. Natural selection favors traits more use full for the organisms given environment, organisms without these certain traits die out, so organisms with the favorable traits will survive and reproduce thus spreading the favorable trait.

Isolation can cause groups of the same species to speciate, a new species is developed within a species due to natural selection. Each isolated group develops traits that will benefit themselves. This causes derived traits to form in the lineage. Derived traits are slight changes in the ancestral traits.

There are two evolutionary traits that describe lineage. The first is called gradualism. In a complete evolutionary lineage, a finely graded transitional difference occurs between each ancestor and its descendants. This means that species gradually evolve and show differences in derived traits but keep similar ancestral traits. Traits will be specialized to suit the species given environment. The second explanation punctuated equilibrium. Punctuated equilibrium is the concept that evolutionary change proceeds through long periods of stasis punctuated by rapid periods of change. This concept favors a non-gradual evolution. It favors the idea of quick spurts through time. One thing is certain that species do evolve as time passes by. So much time is needed to see physical change in species.

Natural selection causes variations in humans. There are three variations: morphological, physiological, and behavioral. Morphological variation includes shapes and proportions, colder climates tend to have smaller chunkier people and hot places have thinner and leaner people. Physiological variation includes dietary size. Some places people are used to certain food nutrition and limits the maximum size of their body. The amount of clothes a person wears to suit its environment is behavioral variation. People in places with colder temperatures wear more clothes than people in warmer climates.

Natural selection is essential for the survival of life on Earth. It is the tendency of the most fit organisms to survive in their given environment. Surviving individuals result in a favorable variation of traits in the species. Like the cheetah, over time its developed the ability to run fast, because of environmental pressure. Another form of natural selection is human-induced selection, which is called artificial selection.

Artificial selection is forced breeding and human driven domestication of plants and animals. It is used to make growth of the plants and animals increase so it can meet the demands of the humans. 

Artificial selection gave birth to many of the diseases we face today. Living in close proximity with live stock is a main cause. We have bred livestock for so long that many wild species have disappeared - now these animals only function as "food". Plus, we have altered agriculture. Grains now produce more, but their root systems are shallow. Shallow root systems increase the probability of erosion. We have completed altered our ecosystem with artificial selection. So we have unlimited supplies of food thanks to science, but this same science has caused elevated levels of greenhouse gases. 

The Earth goes through natural phases of increased greenhouse gases - yes, it is NATURAL. However, the rate of increase today is not natural. Our artificial selection processes have toyed with natural selection. We have damaged our home. Evolution is supposed to be natural, caused by the environment. Can we fix this? Yes! Are we trying to fix the problem? Some of us are. Join the cause, let's revive natural selection so all these wonderful species in our world can adapt to the changes and continue to exist.

Read more about how artificial selection is damaging the world!

About the Author

I'm Jose Pierre and I like learning about all aspects of culture, both ancient and modern. I enjoy learning how they communicated, expressed themselves, and their technology.