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Objections to evolution have been raised since evolutionary ideas came to prominence in the 19th century. When Charles Darwin published his 1859 book On the Origin of Species, his theory of evolution (the idea that species arose through descent with modification from a single common ancestor in a process driven by natural selection) initially met opposition from scientists with different ...
David Penny (born 1939), New Zealand biologist known for theoretical biology, molecular evolution, human evolution, and the history of science; Henri Perrier de la Bâthie (1873–1958), French botanist [285] who studied the plants of Madagascar. George Perry (born 1771), English naturalist, author of Conchology, or the natural history of shells
The Theory of Evolution. John Maynard Smith (1972). On Evolution. John Maynard Smith (1978). The Evolution of Sex. John Maynard Smith (1982). Evolution and the Theory of Games. John Maynard Smith (1989). Evolutionary Genetics. John Maynard Smith and Eörs Szathmáry (1995). The Major Transitions in Evolution. John Maynard Smith and Eörs ...
Charles Darwin in 1868. Darwinism is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.
Professor of biology Jerry Coyne sums up biological evolution succinctly: [3]. Life on Earth evolved gradually beginning with one primitive species – perhaps a self-replicating molecule – that lived more than 3.5 billion years ago; it then branched out over time, throwing off many new and diverse species; and the mechanism for most (but not all) of evolutionary change is natural selection.
Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary theory consisted of the first truly cohesive theory of biological evolution, [9] in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through use and disuse of characteristics, differentiating them from ...
Alternatives to Darwinian evolution have been proposed by scholars investigating biology to explain signs of evolution and the relatedness of different groups of living things. The alternatives in question do not deny that evolutionary changes over time are the origin of the diversity of life, nor that the organisms alive today share a common ...
The theory of evolution is widely accepted among the scientific community, serving to link the diverse speciality areas of biology. [19] Evolution provides the field of biology with a solid scientific base. The significance of evolutionary theory is summarised by Theodosius Dobzhansky as "nothing in biology makes sense except in the light of ...