which famous scientist proposed the theory of natural selection?

Answer 1

General concepts of biological evolution and species change date to ancient times; the Ionian physician Empedocles said that many races "must have been unable to beget and continue their kind. For in the case of every species that exists, either craft or courage or speed has from the beginning of its existence protected and preserved it".

Several eighteenth-century thinkers wrote about similar theories, including Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis in 1745, Lord Monboddo in his theories of species alteration, and Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin in 1794–1796. However, these 'precursors' had little influence on the trajectory of evolutionary thought after Darwin.

Until the early 19th century, the established view in Western societies was that differences between individuals of a species were uninteresting departures from their Platonic ideal (or typus) of created kinds.

However, growing awareness of the fossil record led to the recognition that species that lived in the distant past were often very different from those that exist today. Naturalists of the time tried to reconcile this with the emerging ideas of uniformitarianism in geology - the notion that simple, weak forces, acting continuously over very long periods of time could have radical consequences, shaping the landscape as we know it today.

Most importantly perhaps, these notions led to the awareness of the immensity of geological time, which makes it possible for slight causes to produce dramatic consequences. This opened the door to the notion that species might have arisen by descent with modification from ancestor species.

In the early years of the 19th century, radical evolutionists such as Jean Baptiste Lamarck had proposed that characteristics (adaptations) acquired by individuals might be inherited by their progeny, causing, in enough time, transmutation of species (see Lamarckism).[22]


Darwin's hypothesis
Between 1842 and 1844, Charles Darwin outlined 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".[

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In the 19th century, a man called Charles Darwin, a biologist from England, set off on the ship HMS Beagle to investigate species of the island.

After spending time on the islands, he soon developed a theory that would contradict the creation of man and imply that all species derived from common ancestors through a process called natural selection. Natural selection is considered to be the biggest factor resulting in the diversity of species and their genomes. The principles of Darwin's work and his theory are stated below.

The Theory of Natural Selection
One of the prime motives for all species is to reproduce and survive, passing on the genetic information of the species from generation to generation. When species do this they tend to produce more offspring than the environment can support.
The lack of resources to nourish these individuals places pressure on the size of the species population, and the lack of resources means increased competition and as a consequence, some organisms will not survive.
The organisms who die as a consequence of this competition were not totally random, Darwin found that those organisms more suited to their environment were more likely to survive.
This resulted in the well known phrase survival of the fittest, where the organisms most suited to their environment had more chance of survival if the species falls upon hard times. (This phrase if often associated with Darwin, though on closer inspection Herbert Spencer puts the phrase in a more accurate historical context.)
Those organisms who are better suited to their environment exhibit desirable characteristics, which is a consequence of their genome being more suitable to begin with.
This 'weeding out' of less suited organisms and the reward of survival to those better suited led Darwin to deduce that organisms had evolved over time, where the most desirable characteristics of a species are favoured and those organisms who exhibit them survive to pass their genes on.

As a consequence of this, a changing environment would mean different characteristics would be favourable in a changing environment. Darwin believed that organisms had 'evolved' to suit their environments, and occupy an ecological niche where they would be best suited to their environment and therefore have the best chance of survival.

As the above indicates, those alleles of a species that are favoured in the environment will become more frequent in the genomes of the species, due to the organisms higher likeliness of surviving as part of the species at large

Answer 2

Charles Darwin

Answer 3

the theory of natural selection was actually developed independently by Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace Russell. Darwin is just the one that is commonly taught to people.

Answer 4

Technically Darwin did because he came up with the phrase "survival of the fittest". He included this as a part of his theory of evolution. Malthus' writings however influenced darwin to come up with the theory.

Answer 5

the oh-so-famous CHARLES DARWIN.

Answer 6

Darwin.. duh