Download Tree of Life – Evolution and Darwin CS

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Darwin and the Tree of Life
By the 19th century most Europeans believed that the world was created by
God in six days as described in the bible.
On his voyage on the HMS Beagle, Charles Darwin read that the fossils
found in rocks were actually evidence of animals that lived many thousands
or millions of years ago.
This was reinforced in Darwin’s own mind by the rich variety of animal life
and the geological features he saw during his voyage which lasted almost 5
years . The breakthrough in his ideas came in the Galapagos Islands, 500
miles west of South America.
Darwin noticed that each island supported its own form of finch which were
closely related but differed in important ways.
On his return to England in 1836, Darwin tried to solve the riddles of these
observations and the puzzle of how species evolve. He proposed a theory of
evolution occurring by the process of natural selection. The theory
proposedthat animals (or plants) were more likely to survive if they
adaptedto their environment and that these animals would reproduce,
passing on the same characteristics to their offspring which in turn helped
them survive also.
S4 – Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
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In this way, gradually, the species changes over time.
Darwin worked on his theory for twenty years and in 1859 his observations
were published in his book ‘On the Origin of the Species by Means of
Natural Selection’
The book was extremely controversial, because the logical extension of
Darwin’s theory was that homo-sapiens (humans) were simply another form
of animal.
It made it seem that even people might just have evolved – quite
possibly from apes –and this destroyed the prevailing religious belief that
the
world was created by God.
Darwin was strongly attacked particularly by the Church at the time.
However, his ideas soon gained currency and have now become an accepted
explanation as to how life started.
S4 – Darwin’s Theory of Evolution