Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
- Darwin started as a believer in the literal interpretation of the Bible.
- From 1831 to 1836,Charles Darwin went on a 5 yr. expedition( on a ship called “The HMS Beagle”) to South America. Darwin discovered fossils of creatures that were already extinct and that dated millions of years old. He observed the adaptations of organisms to a variety of habitat from jungle to grassland to mountain habitats.
- During his trip on the Beagle he started to shift his thoughts into believing of the gradualism and immense time for geological changes.
- Darwin denounced the biblical account of creation.
- On Nov. 24, 1859, Darwin published his famous “The Origin of Species” which proposed that life, as we know it, is the product of millions of years of Evolution.
- Charles Darwin however agrees that if any of his hypothesis are proven wrong, that all his theory is false.
Charles Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
- All species that inhabit the Earth evolved over millions of years from single-celled organisms which first appeared when the Earth’s crust was formed.
- “I believe it has been with the Tree of Life, which fills with its dead and broken branches the crust of the earth, and covers the surface with its ever branching and beautiful ramifications” -Darwin (1859)
Charles Darwin’s Tree of Life
- There are three ways in which changes in species occurs: mutation, hereditary/ common descent, and natural selection.
Mutation
1.Mutant genes which caused drastic changes
2. States that new traits arise by random mutations in DNA
3.If this trait is desirable, then it will be selected for in natural selection
4.Most of the time mutations are not desirable, and the individual carrying them will not leave offspring, leading to the end of that trait
Hereditary/ Common Descent
1.Which carried changes to future generations
2.Organisms share a common ancestor, and thus are related.
Example: The ancestor of humans would be chimpanzees
3.Is based on similarities between organisms
Natural Selection
1.Survival of the fittest
2.States that if there is variety within a group of organisms, the more “fit” individuals will survive and pass on their desirable traits
3.However, does not address where the variety arises from
Similarities Among Species
- Similarities among species indicate that they have a common ancestry.
Ex. The structure of the bat’s wing, cat’s paw, and human hand.
Ex. The ape & the man are very similar in bone & cell structure which must mean that they come from the same ancestry.
The Fossil Records
1.Lucy
2. Piltdown Man
3.Nebraska Man
4.Java Man
5.Neanderthal Man