Mechanisms of Evolution
It is said that biology “came of age” when Charles Darwin published “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection”. In this book Darwin expressed his concept on the mechanism of evolution: natural selection. He felt that a population could change over generations if organisms that have certain heritable traits left more offspring than other organisms in that population. The result of this is evolutionary adaptation is where populations increase in traits that are suited to the environment. Evolution is when the genetic makeup of a population changes over time to adapt to its environment. Darwin found evidence of natural selection when he sailed from Great Britain along the South American coastline in 1831. He noticed various adaptations in the organisms inhabiting South America. He realized that the plants and animals were distinctly different from the organisms in Europe. Upon examination of different fossils on the South American continent he observed that the fossils were different from the modern species and yet there was still a resemblance between the fossils and the modern organisms. In his book The Origin
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