Nova Vedec Family: A Short Story

Once upon a time, in a land not very far away, there lived a little girl named Nova Vedec, who lived with her dad, Niles Vedec. Anyone who had known the Vedec’s would tell you that they were quite a remarkable family. In fact, the Vedec’s family was full of scientists, and almost every single Vedec went into a field relating to it. Niles Vedec was especially entranced with the studies of fossils, and was a Paleontologist.

It was one spring afternoon when little Nova came home from first grade and asked Niles, who was slumped over a desk covered with little reptile bones, what evolution was and who could have possibly discovered it.

Niles immediately left his work to enthusiastically hug his daughter. After such a hard day, it was so refreshing to finally be given the chance to make a scientific rant.

“Well,” he said, “The theory
of evolution’s most important founder was a very intelligent guy named Charles Darwin….”

A cute house - Ocean Grove, New Jersey
“The theory of evolution was Mr. Darwin's life work. He did not invent the idea of it, but rather added onto it and made it provable with his extensive research and data,” Niles told Nova, gesturing to a large framed photograph of a painting of Darwin above the fireplace.

“Darwin was fascinated with the changes in species that resulted in differences, and it was his goal to find an idea that explained how new species adapted. So he went on a voyage by sea to the Galapagos islands, and every time his ship made a stop, he would research the animals that he saw, and take note of their similarities and differences.”

“What did Darwin research when he arrived at the Galapagos islands?,” asked Nova.

“All sorts of creatures, but he focussed mainly on finches, and there were fourteen different kinds. He found that each kind of finch had a different kind of beak especially adapted to the type of food they ate.

Especially after he published his book, Origin of Species, Darwin was mocked and thought of as crazy by most people. His thoughts were strange and different, and they went apart from religion, a huge part of people's lives. However, he was an incredible scientist and left a lasting impact on the world.”

“But surely,” thought Nova aloud, “Birds aren't the only evidence there is?”

“You're right!” Said Niles.
Nova’s dad carefully took a small leather box from the corner of his work desk and opened the lid, showing Nova the contents. It was filled to the brim with fossils, remains of ancient organisms from the past.

“All of the creatures you see here descend from a common ancestor. In fact, we are related to them, though our relation goes back to a very very long time ago. Fossils give us evidence that species evolve. Take this shell for example. It is different from shells we see now in many ways, but there are a lot of similarities as well. The more similarities there are between creatures, the more recently they shared a common ancestor.”

“But why are these fossils so different from what we see now? Why did the animals change?”

“ Different animals spreaded across the world to different places with different food sources. Over a very long time, and through natural selection, the animals began to change to fit the needs of their habitat.”

“Thats cool! Wait… what is natural selection?!!” Asked Nova, a little
confused.

“Natural selection is the survival and reproduction of individuals due to differences that help them survive. It is a key process of evolution. What happens is that some organisms have certain traits or even mutations that help them survive longer than others. Because they survive longer, they have more time to breed. Some of their children inherit the trait that helped them, and the cycle is continued. For example, let's say that there is a type of beetle that birds like quite a bit. There are two colors of beetles in the species- orange and green. The green beetles have a harder time fitting into their environment, are more visible to their predators, and therefore more are eaten. The orange ones, however, last longer because they can hide better, and have more children with mainly orange beetles. ”

“So it's like how humans breed our dogs or cats to make them look a certain way!” Said Nova.

“Not exactly- when humans breed other animals, it is called artificial selection, but when animals breed with themselves, natural selection occurs.”

“That's very interesting... but how are all of those traits passed down anyways?”

“It all really comes down to genetics and molecular biology. The DNA code itself links all life on earth to a common ancestor. When traits change over a long period of time in a species, what we don’t always see is that cellular molecules like RNA, DNA, and protein sequences are changing. This idea was something that Darwin was always missing. He lived in a time before the idea of genetics had really been thought of, and heredity was a mystery to us.”

“Oh!”Spoke Niles. “I almost forgot about anatomy! Many animals, even us, have unnecessary bones and structures inside of us that we don’t even use. These are from when, at one point in time, we did use them but adapted to not. For example, whales have forearms similar to ours with finger like bones that are hidden inside of their fins. They do not, obviously, use them now, but at one point their ancestors did.”

Whale evogram
“Wow.” whispered Nova in awe.

“I have one more question.”

“Yes?” asked Niles, now utterly exhausted.

“What is Narratology?”