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2007-03-19 17:29:29 · 2 answers · asked by ptamonte 1 in Science & Mathematics Biology

2 answers

There are three observations that anybody can see are true:

1. Variation: Individuals in a species are not all identical.
2. Inheritance: Individuals pass traits onto offspring.
3. Competition: Individuals in a species compete for survival and mating opportunities.

GIven those three things, we see that the following is true:

4. Natural selection: Individuals with traits that give them an advantage in the competition for survival or mates, pass their traits onto offspring in greater numbers than individuals without those traits.

That's it.

2007-03-19 17:49:01 · answer #1 · answered by secretsauce 7 · 1 0

That's almost it but not quite. It is probably enough to answer your teacher's question BUT those steps merely describe the process and mechanism of natural selection. This was known before Darwin's time and was (and still is) not controversial. No religion I have ever heard of would dispute that there is "survival of the fittest" in nature (which is really all that natural selection is). The thing is, that this helps something like an ape become better adapted to its environment but everyone thought it would, over time, still be an ape. The essence of why Darwin caused such a stir is that he said (and he actually wasn't the first to say it either) that, by the process of natural selection, one species could evolve into another. In other words, over time, given the right conditions, an ape could change into a more complex species, and not simply remain as an ape.

2007-03-20 06:00:30 · answer #2 · answered by SteveK 5 · 0 0

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