Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
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.
The tree of life or universal tree of life is a metaphor, conceptual model, and research tool used to explore the evolution of life and describe the relationships between organisms, both living and extinct, as described in a famous passage in Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species (1859). [1]
Where the fact of evolutionary change was accepted by biologists but natural selection was denied, including but not limited to the late 19th century eclipse of Darwinism, alternative scientific explanations such as Lamarckism, orthogenesis, structuralism, catastrophism, vitalism and theistic evolution [a] were entertained, not necessarily separately.
Darwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows: [6] Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce, the population would grow (fact). Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).
The crucial break from the concept of constant typological classes or types in biology came with the theory of evolution through natural selection, which was formulated by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace in terms of variable populations. Darwin used the expression descent with modification rather than evolution. [321]
In 1859, Charles Darwin set out his theory of evolution by natural selection as an explanation for adaptation and speciation. He defined natural selection as the "principle by which each slight variation [of a trait], if useful, is preserved". [17]
On the Origin of Species – 1859 book on evolution by Charles Darwin; Caricatures of Charles Darwin and his evolutionary theory in 19th-century England; Darwinism – Theory of biological evolution; History of evolutionary thought. By period or event Evolutionary ideas of the Renaissance and Enlightenment – Changes in evolutionary philosophies
Darwin published his theory of evolution by natural selection in On the Origin of Species in 1859. [18] His theory means that all life, including humanity, is a product of continuing natural processes. The implication that all life on Earth has a common ancestor has been met with objections from some religious groups.