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This forms an important part of the evidence on which evolutionary theory rests, demonstrates that evolution does occur, and illustrates the processes that created Earth's biodiversity. It supports the modern evolutionary synthesis—the current scientific theory that explains how and why life changes over time.
Othniel C. Marsh, America's first palaeontologist, was the first to provide solid fossil evidence to support Darwin's theory of evolution by unearthing the ancestors of the modern horse. [328] In 1877, Marsh delivered a very influential speech before the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, providing a ...
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.
A symbolic portrayal of human evolution, showing developmental stages as a matter of illustration. "Missing link" is a recently-discovered transitional fossil.It is often used in popular science and in the media for any new transitional form.
Darwin came across von Baer's laws from the work of Johannes Peter Müller in 1842, and realised that it was a support for his own theory of descent with modification. [9] Darwin was a critique of the recapitulation theory and agreed with von Baer that an adult animal is not reflected by an embryo of another animal, and only embryos of ...
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.
Level of support for evolution – Variation in support for the theory of evolution; Objections to evolution – Arguments that have been made against evolution; Social effects of evolutionary theory – Effects on human societies of the scientific explanation of life's diversity; Theology of creationism and evolution – Topic in theology
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 ...