...Selective Breeding and Genetics Darwinism and the theory of natural selection had far reaching implications for society both culturally and scientifically. For the first time in history a theory was proposed that offered a plausible mechanism for evolution. This paper examines the science behind natural selection as well as the impact Darwin has had on modern evolutionary paradigms. Specifically it poses two questions: (1) How did Darwin formulate his ideas about natural selection and evolution? And (2) Is natural selection still fundamentally valid or have we moved into a new evolutionary paradigm. Pre Darwin. Every scientific field has an earlier paradigm as scientific cannons change through the process of time. Before the advent of Darwin and his ideas about “natural selection” human evolution was perceived quite differently. During the Medieval Ages the predominate field of thought was in the “Great Chain of Being.” A structured hierarchy that believed everything had its place in a divinely inspired universe (Suber, 1997). An objects place on the “evolutionary” chain depended on the amount of “spirit” or “matter” it contained, less “spirit” and more “matter” placed it further down on the chain. Ideas such as “spontaneous generation,” which stated that organism could arrive fully formed from inorganic matter only served to enforce Christian ideals of divine inspiration and hinder any kind of true scientific research. (Evers, 1999) Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)...
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...passed down to the next generation of organisms, which would of benefit the population and creating new kinds of species. Some of this is possibly not true and would require years of constant gene changes for the species to adapt to their environment and could not instantly be passed down from one specie to another. This was his idea of continuous progress; he believed that each day in some way we would be improving. His theory proposes that the positive evolutionary changes result from changing needs or changes to the...
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...significant set of theories that explain the evolutionary history of our natural world and ongoing environmental change? The origin of life and earth is still one of the greatest mysteries scientists have yet to solve. Modern day science and technology allow us to make theoretically correct assumptions about the past. According to research, it is evident that the earth’s environment and life have been evolving since the beginning of time, which is still evident today as ecosystems and environments continue to change. Three theories that help explain the evolutionary history of our natural world and ongoing environmental change include natural selection, neutral theory of molecular evolution, and the transition into the Anthropocene epoch. Natural selection theory argues that life forms evolve in response to the changes in the environment. Neutral theory of molecular change argues that changes occur in organisms at a constant rate over time without the influence of the environment. Anthropocene is a relatively new term that suggests we have transitioned from the Holocene era to the Anthropocene, which is characterized human dominated activity. These theories are presented in various works, but this paper will focus on Life and the Evolution of Earth’s Atmosphere by Stephen J. Mojzsis, The Anthropocene: a new epoch of geological time? by Jan Zalasiewicz, Mark Williams, Alan Haywood, and Michael Ellis, and The Modern Molecular Clock by Lindell Bromham and David Penny. According to...
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...Unit Four Aha Thesis - Evolution Evolution occurs over time. Evolution occurs when the whole population changes due to certain events. The events that could cause evolution includes major changes in the environment, major changes in habitat, and major changes in the food chain. The Evidence For Evolution There are many different ways to observe the process of evolution. There are three main categories that show evolution. Those three categories are DNA, Fossils, and Comparative Anatomy. DNA is where scientists look at the DNA of modern animals and compare them to other modern animals and extinct animals. An example would be scientists looking at the DNA of a gorilla and comparing it to the DNA of an orangutan and being able to say when those two species became what they are today. Scientists use fossils to compare what an extinct species...
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...Today there are over 7.2 billion people on our planet and that number is increasing at an alarming rate. With advances in modern technology our population numbers have seen tremendous results. Doctors today are much more capable of preventing still born and infant deaths and have even made outstanding progress in in-vitro fertilization and other fertility drugs; giving many women the chance to carry children of their own where it would otherwise be deemed impossible if done so naturally. On the other end of the spectrum, doctors are now able to prolong life adding nearly 30 years to our life expectancy. With the human population expected to reach 8 billion people by 2024, can our planet actually sustain that many people? During the Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century, population numbers began to rise hitting the 1 billion mark in the early 1800’s and has spiraled from there; hitting 2 billion in 1927, 3 billion in 1960, 4 billion 14 years later (1927), 13 years later in 1987 reaching 5 billion, 12 years after we were at 6 billion in 1999, and recently in 2011 we reached the 7 billion mark ("World population," n.d.). We as the human race are reproducing and staying alive much longer and with no sign of it slowing down any time soon. During the 20th century alone, the population of the earth has grown from 1.65 billion to 6 billion people. In 1970, there were roughly half as many people in the world as there are today. ("World population," n.d.). The Peoples Republic...
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...Abstract Understanding evolution helps us solve biological problems that impact our lives. There are excellent examples of this in the field of medicine. To stay one step ahead of pathogenic diseases, researchers must understand the evolutionary patterns of disease-causing organisms. To control hereditary diseases in people, researchers study the evolutionary histories of the disease-causing genes. In these ways, knowledge of evolution can improve the quality of human life. Evolution played an important role not only for the present day humans but all living things today. As you all know, we didn’t just evolve out of nothing, we all have an ancestor whose ancestor’s ancestor is our ancestor and so on. When we can’t go back any further because of the given facts, we know that was every organism’s common ancestor. To understand the importance of evolution, we must gather some understanding of the meaning of evolution. Here is biological evolution defined by one of the most respected evolutionary biologists, Douglas Futuyma. "In the broadest sense, evolution is merely change, and so is all-pervasive; galaxies, languages, and political systems all evolve. Biological evolution ... is change in the properties of populations of organisms that transcend the lifetime of a single individual. The ontogeny of an individual is not considered evolution; individual organisms do not evolve. The changes in populations that are considered evolutionary are those that are inheritable via the...
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...adaptation a. Evolution-change over time of the genetic composition of a population; descent of modern organisms with modifications from pre-existing organisms b. Adaptation- accumulation of inherited characteristics that enhance organisms’ ability to survive in specific environments Concept 22.1: The Darwinian revolution challenged traditional views of a young Earth inhabited by unchanging species * Describe the theories of catastrophism, gradualism, and uniformitarianism. c. Catastrophism- principle that events in the past occurred suddenly and were caused by mechanisms different than those operating in the present d. Gradualism- idea that Earth’s geologic features could be explained by gradual mechanisms still operating today e. Uniformitarianism- mechanisms of change are constant over time * Explain the mechanism for evolutionary change proposed by Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck f. x-Use and disuse- Bodies of living organisms are modified through the use or disuse of parts g. x-Inheritance of acquired characteristics- these modifications are inherited by offspring Concept 22.2: Descent with modification by natural selection explains the adaptations of organisms and the unity and diversity of life * Explain the mechanism for evolutionary change proposed by Darwin in On the Origin of Species. h. Natural Selection- unequal survival and reproduction of organisms due to environmental forces, resulting in the preservation...
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...Astronomy Research and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life The objective of this paper is to discuss life here on Earth and the possibilities of extraterrestrial life in one’s solar system. The team will describe the properties of life on Earth and explain the theories for the genesis of life, including the theory of natural selection. Members will provide a brief description of the evolution of life and include a geological timescale that describes specific eras throughout the previous three billion plus years. The team will assess the possibilities of extraterrestrial life, and results will be presented. Describe the properties of life on Earth Properties of life on Earth are what define the word life. The properties of life consist of cells and reproduction, responses to the environment, growth and development, and evolution. Every living thing is collected through cells which make tissues and organs that make a living organism. All living organisms can produce such as humans, animals, bacteria, and plants called asexual reproduction. The responses of the living in the environment are through any changes occurring in “light, sound, heat, and chemical contact” through “eyes, ears, and taste buds” (Cliff’s notes, 2011, para. 3). Behavior is one way that all living organisms changes through the environment such as the food chain for one’s survival. Growth and development of an organism takes in all substantial amount of information through energy of building...
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...into organic forms. The student Stanley Miller filled a closed glass container with a mixture of gases. A reservoir of boiling water was at the bottom and above it was an apparatus that caused sparks to pass through the gas mixture. Amino acids and other organic chemicals formed from the gases and water. Since then, there has been other more sophisticated research has been conducted synthesizing additional amino acids and even nucleic acids. These molecules organize into DNA and RNA encoding the genetic information of organisms. The origin of Life - science.jrank.org/ 3. Explain the theory of natural selection. There was a time when scientist believed that species developed gradually from one form to another but had no validity to make it happen. The theory of natural selection provides that method of evolution. The basic idea of natural selection is based on those organisms that are best suited to the new circumstances thrive and others will not. An observation by Charles Darwin showed that some animals within a species had varied traits making some more suited for certain...
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...Naturwissenschaften (2004) 91:255–276 DOI 10.1007/s00114-004-0515-y REVIEW Ulrich Kutschera · Karl J. Niklas The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis Published online: 17 March 2004 Springer-Verlag 2004 Abstract In 1858, two naturalists, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace, independently proposed natural selection as the basic mechanism responsible for the origin of new phenotypic variants and, ultimately, new species. A large body of evidence for this hypothesis was published in Darwin’s Origin of Species one year later, the appearance of which provoked other leading scientists like August Weismann to adopt and amplify Darwin’s perspective. Weismann’s neo-Darwinian theory of evolution was further elaborated, most notably in a series of books by Theodosius Dobzhansky, Ernst Mayr, Julian Huxley and others. In this article we first summarize the history of life on Earth and provide recent evidence demonstrating that Darwin’s dilemma (the apparent missing Precambrian record of life) has been resolved. Next, the historical development and structure of the “modern synthesis” is described within the context of the following topics: paleobiology and rates of evolution, mass extinctions and species selection, macroevolution and punctuated equilibrium, sexual reproduction and recombination, sexual selection and altruism, endosymbiosis and eukaryotic cell evolution, evolutionary developmental biology, phenotypic plasticity, epigenetic inheritance and...
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...Q1: Darwin's Origin consisted of two parts. The first described observations in support of common descent, the second a mechanism to explain how it was the case. Provide examples of the observations Darwin used (1 page). ‘On the origin of species by means of natural selection : or, The preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life’ by Charles Darwin (1860) was the first book to put forward the scientific theory that populations evolve over a period of generations by the process of natural selection. The first part of the book described observations in support of common descent. One such observation is that of the homologous structures possessed by a wide variety of animals. Darwin used the fact that lizards, bats, whales, birds, frogs cats and even humans all contain a pent dactyl limb to support his theory that all life is descended from one common ancestor. As he says himself , “What can be more curious than that the hand of a man, formed for grasping, that of a mole for digging, the leg of the horse, the paddle of the porpoise, and the wing of the bat, should all be constructed on the same pattern, and should include the same bones, in the same relative positions?”(Darwin 1860) Another observation of common descent from the first part of Darwin’s book is that of convergence of form. This is the presence of similar biological traits in members of different species. Darwin illustrated this using the example of the finches. He observed a variety of forms encountered...
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...Approximately 10 billion animals are raised and killed for there meat, eggs, and milk each year. With a steady increase in population that number needs to double to support the predicted 9 billion people by 2050 (United Nations Programmme). With most problems in this modern day of age we as humans turn to science for the solution. Genetic modification also called genetic engineering, is any process of human manipulation in an organism's genetic material in a way that does not occur under natural conditions. Genetic modification in animals negatively affects the public (consumers) by putting the animals' health at risk, introducing diseases, and allowing scientists to by pass what nature naturally intended. The 1980's marked the scientific discovery that specific pieces of DNA could be transferred from one organism to another (Cramer 2001). Although genetic modification dates back to prehistoric times with “natural selection”, the cross-breeding of relative species and specific characteristics and traits being exchanged. This occurred over time as nature intended with the process of evolution letting animals adapt to their surroundings. The difference is we now posses the technology that allows us to make this “natural selection” process happen at an exponential rate. Such speeds of cross-breeding can bring out deformities in the animal for not sufficient time is allowed in the development process. Every organism carries genes inside itself, a gene is a basic unit of heredity of the...
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...ethically acceptable. In this society, an individual’s place in the society is determined by their genetic makeup and circumstances under which they get born. Invalids are people born through natural process while valids are individuals whose existence came about through the process of genetic engineering. Despite the advancements in the society, it is prudent to respect the natural laws of the existence of living things, including human beings, a concept that seems overrun by time in this movie....
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...laborers. But with the Industrial Revolution, some societies traded this ancient poverty for amazing affluence. Historians and economists have long struggled to understand how this transition occurred and why it took place only in some countries. A scholar who has spent the last 20 years scanning medieval English archives has now emerged with startling answers for both questions. Gregory Clark, an economic historian at the University of California, Davis, believes that the Industrial Revolution -- the surge in economic growth that occurred first in England around 1800 -- occurred because of a change in the nature of the human population. The change was one in which people gradually developed the strange new behaviors required to make a modern economy work. The middle-class values of nonviolence, literacy, long working hours and a willingness to save emerged only recently in human history, Dr. Clark argues. Because they grew more common in the centuries before 1800, whether by cultural transmission or evolutionary adaptation, the English population at last became productive enough to escape from poverty, followed quickly by other countries with the same long agrarian past. Dr. Clark’s ideas have been circulating in articles and manuscripts for several years and are to be published as a book next month, "A Farewell to Alms" (Princeton University Press). Economic historians have high praise for his thesis, though many disagree with parts of it. "This is a great book and deserves...
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...Within Class Mammalia and Order Proboscidae, modern day elephants descended from Moeritheriums, which were the approximate size of current day pigs1. Over the course of 50 million years, evolutionary trends have resulted in elephants gradually increasing in size. Although there are only two species of elephants today, the Asian elephant or Elephas maximus and African elephant or Loxodonta africana, it is believed that a single ancestor, the Paleomastodon, evolved into an estimated 352 different elephant species2. Charles Darwin coined the term “natural selection”, which is “the preservation of a functional advantage that enables a species to compete better in the wild3”. For elephants, this functional advantage was the development of the trunk,...
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