W3 Assignment 1 Discussion

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Darwin was not the first to consider evolution as a process but he did come up with the first effective explanation for how it happens. Describe Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.
Darwin was not the first to consider the evolution process and came up with the first effective explanation for how it happens. Darwin's theory of evolution changed scientific thought by which he called it “natural selection.” This came about because he began to question prior ideas about the natural world. Natural selection is the “process by which random evolutionary changes are selected for by nature in a consistent, orderly, non-random way” (What is Natural Selection?, 2013). It is a process that occurs from generation to generation (heritable) and that many factors in nature have an effect on. Nature can be a dangerous place to live. Nature is capable of selection. Perhaps not direct control or selection but instead the indirect selection of nature. For example some of those factors in nature can be germs (because they kill), animals (they can eat you), die of heat exhaustion and or exposure to the cold. Over generations, creatures can become more and more suited for survival in their specific environments by natural selection. The process of descent with modification comes into play because it is where the new traits are randomly produced being that nature decides which new traits to keep. Positive changes happen over time and multiple generations (Evolution and Natural Selection, 2010).

Explain how this theory was a major advance over prior ideas as to how organisms changed over time.
Evolutionary ideas were proposed and debated long before Darwin come along. Darwin did not discover evolution but rather proposed the...

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... disasters such as the recent typhoon in the Philippines, which kills off a large number of individuals; the result is a drastic reduction of the population size, which in turn affects the genetic variation. Last there is gene flow, which is when individuals migrate between populations, this brings in more genetic variation.

Works Cited

Evolution and Natural Selection. (October 10, 2010). undefined. In University of Michigan's Global Change Curriculum. Retrieved December 02, 2013, from http://www.globalchange.umich.edu/globalchange1/current/lectures/selection/selection.html.
Pre-Darwinian Evolutionary Thought. (2009). In Charles Darwin & Evolution . Retrieved December 03, 2013, from http://darwin200.christs.cam.ac.uk/pages/
What is Natural Selection?. (2013). In Stated Clearly. Retrieved December 03, 2013, from http://www.statedclearly.com/natural-selection/

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