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Oct 19, 2023 · Charles Darwin was a 19th-century naturalist who revolutionized the theory of evolution. Learn about his life, his voyage on the HMS Beagle, and his discoveries on natural selection and adaptation. Explore how his ideas changed the way we understand the diversity of life on Earth.
Though Darwin’s ideas were modified by later developments in genetics and molecular biology, his work remains central to modern evolutionary theory. His many other important works included Variation in Animals and Plants Under Domestication (1868) and The Descent of Man…
Summary of Darwin's theory. Darwin pictured shortly before publication. Darwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows: [6] Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the population would grow (fact).
Darwin's theory. In 1859, Charles Darwin set out his theory of evolution by natural selection as an explanation for adaptation and speciation. He defined natural selection as the "principle by which each slight variation [of a trait], if useful, is preserved". [17]
Oct 19, 2023 · Article. Vocabulary. English naturalist Charles Darwin developed the idea of natural selection after a five-year voyage to study plants, animals, and fossils in South America and on islands in the Pacific. In 1859, he brought the idea of natural selection to the attention of the world in his best-selling book, On the Origin of Species.
In those early days of professional science in England, many believed that the idea of "transmutation" was false and anti-religious. Transmutation was the contemporary term for what we now call evolution, the idea that all species currently and formerly alive are descended from a single common ancestor that lived in the remote geological past.
Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection underlies all modern biology. It enables us to decipher our genes and fight viruses, as well as to understand Earth's fossil record and rich biodiversity. Simple and at times controversial, misunderstood and misused for social goals, the theory remains unchallenged as the central concept of biology.
