Evolution

I have always equated the theory of natural selection with the 'survival of the fittest', assuming automatically that nature weeded out those that were not intelligent or strong enough, finally leaving humans at the top of the evolution ladder. After taking this course, my concept of the ladder has changed. Instead of viewing it as vertical, I now conceive of it as horizontal, with all that is currently in existence on earth sharing the place where I believed human beings stood unchallenged. I have gained a deeper and more subtle understanding of the concept of natural selection, understanding how it works in conjunction with other natural processes to affect evolution. The stories that we have discussed in class have changed my story. They have especially changed the vocabulary that I use in order to describe evolution.

An adolescent interest in dinosaurs led me to believe in the theory of catastrophism. "Catastrophism is the theory that Earth has been affected by sudden, short-lived, violent events that were sometimes worldwide in scope." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catastrophism). One such catastrophic event occurred 65 million years ago when an asteroid struck earth, wiping out 70% of the species then present on earth. What I failed to understand when I first heard of this asteroid, was that this catastrophic event was a result of random chance, and if it had not occurred one can only conjecture about what shape evolution would have taken.

My story of evolution is now rooted in the way that my definition of natural selection has changed. I no longer view it as the 'survival of the fittest', instead understanding it to be a two step process. Natural selection is best described to be both a random and a non-random pr...

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...f the potency of evolution and how it undermines my initial belief of humans as superior beings. Charles Darwin concluded his On the Origin of Species by saying: "There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved." Darwin uses the present tense when he says that the most beautiful and wonderful forms "are being" evolved. My story is currently being revised and I no longer use the words 'superior' and 'best' when talking about evolution.

Bibliography

1. Mayr, Ernst. What Evolution Is. New York: Basic Books, 2001

2. Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page