Charles Darwin Summary Chapter 13

Throughout chapters six and thirteen, Charles Darwin uses an array of scientific areas to show how the data seen in them could support his theory of evolution; these points he uses include the fossil record, instinct, biogeography, taxonomy, comparative anatomy, and embryology. I will be discussing Darwin’s arguments on biogeography and taxonomy, and how his theory explains the data found in these two topics.
In chapter eleven, Darwin begins his exposition on the importance of biogeography in natural selection. He starts with this: “In considering the distribution of organic beings over the face of the globe, the first great fact which strikes us is, that neither the similarity nor the dissimilarity of the inhabitants of various regions can
Scientists can run into several problems with taxonomy, or the classification of species. A science that can help in solving classification issues is embryology. In chapter thirteen Darwin discusses how in several different species, the embryos actually resemble each other, and start to resemble their distinct species as the fetus matures. This change seen in the embryos actually represents the emergence of divergent characteristics in these species. If a modification of an organisms is seen as a specific period in its development and causes its variance from the parents, then this modification will be seen in the offspring’s developmental stages. “We see this plainly in our own children; we cannot always tell whether the child will be tall or short, or what its precise features will be. The question is not, at what period of life any variation has been caused, but at what period it is fully displayed” (Darwin, 442). Since these adaptations inherited from the parent species are not seen until later in development, the embryo of some species look very similar and this can help in determining the connection of descent between