Can anyone give me the Jist of Darwins Theory of evolution in Laymans terms has anyone read it? Is it interest

Question

ing.....lol

Answer 1

natural selection - let put it this way. if your an organism and your environment is changing then perhaps you, or you offspring, had better change to better survive that habitat. whether it be slow climate change that happens over thousands of years or a sudden voilent change like an extiction event. those that can survive will pass there genes onto there offspring and there offspring will have the adaptations necassary for the environment

but humans have done in thousands of years what takes the earth millions. take cattle for example, we humans have breed catle for there traits that favor our liking. those with good traits live on to breed and make the next generation better. those with traits that human oppose have less chance to survive, like weeds or predators. wolves were systematically killed cuase they impose on mans turf. we had no use for them so we nearly wiped them out

Answer 2

I guess you mean, "The Origin of Species".

The gist in layman's terms is that random variations are constantly occuring among species and that some of these changes will provide a survival benefit and others won't. Those that improve the ability of the species to continue will naturally be selected for since the other "normal" variants will be less successful in reproducing. This theory was given an astronomical boost when Watson and Crick discovered DNA, which is the primary mechanism of evolution.

Answer 3

Darwin's theory is basically evolution which when broken down has a number of components in them - natural selection is first and foremost of course, but mutation or changes are also there, how they get transmitted by genes through generation, what is the value of such changes, are they adaptation to the environment, if so their survival value, how better qualities are retained for survival while unfit characters tend to peter out and disappear, if not the whole race of the organism itself does not survive but gets extinct, and all the others: ecological niche occupation in which an organism is highly adapted to its particular environment from which change would perhaps exterminate it and so on.
Prior to Darwin religion played the key role in speculating about creation of all living things and man in particular, while Darwin's theory from his book "Origin of species" brought to the lime light not only the curious adaptations and changes he noted in his voyage to Australia, South Sea Islands and all that but also to the fossils which kept turning up.
Now we know that earth had been formed millions of years before and man came on the scene in the last minute so to speak, but in no way does it contradict the procession of things as stated in the Bible - it will remarkably agree with it. Read it carefully. But from the mystical point of view there are more things than meets the eye in religious books while we cannot say with certainty that the progression of things as laid down in evolutionary biology is all correct. We have to do a lot of compromising.

Answer 4

Actually his theory was that of Natural selection (other people had already coined that term!!)
I have read bits of it!!! THere are several things he discussed but here are the main ones (also remember Darwin had no idea as to how genetics worked...genes etc were not publically known about then).
1. Suvival of the fittest. Individuals that are best suited to the current conditions will be able to produce the most offspring and passing those characters to those off spring.

2. Conditions have changed over time, which has lead to gradual changes in chracters and traits (note he uses gradualism and not puncuated equilibria changes......if you don't know what these are its, 1. changes in features, traits etc change gradually and continually over time, while puncuated equilibria is times of rapid change in response to changes in the envrionment and then long periods of no or very little change).

3. Darwin noted that on islands there were unusal things eg. large animals (eg galapagos toitoises), adaptive radiation (lots of variety in closely realted plants and animals eg Darwins finches) and strange adaptations (eg water loving lizards), which he thought were due to "gaps" in the plants and animals. EG. on an island limited plants and animals arrive (by various methods) and/or isolated on them, so these animals or plants change to fit into these empty niches (eg the beaks on Darwin finches are very varied)

I think these are the main points. Hope it helps

Answer 5

well basically darwin is just trying to say that life is about survival of the fittest. Animals evolve in order to overcome environmentall obsticals so that they can continue to survive. I think he also said that these changes will remain in that species genes. Modern science has now furthered this theory to say that the changes are not physical but genetic which in turn causes the physical changes to the species.Have a look at this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolution

Answer 6

Yes it is very interesting and basically what he found out was that where ever he travelled he encountered animals that had changed to fit their climate and that the same species had found a way to get stronger. A very good example is the butterfly in the north of England which changed colour because of the smog and survived because they were not seen. If you would like back up see wickipedia.com and if you believe their bad press look it up in a library

Answer 7

The following is not my work, but I can't remember where I got it from, but it is a very good summary. If someone knows whose words they are, I will happily acknowledge them.

1. Variation: Individuals in a species are not all identical.
2. Inheritance: Individuals pass traits on to 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.


Edit: I'd like to acknowledge sectretsauce as the originator of the above quote. (I was wondering if it was him).

Answer 8

I wonder what he'd have to say about modern attention spans?

Oh just a couple of things - Darwin never used the terms "natural selection" or "survival of the fittest". He was a devout Christian too and believed in the Creator God. Some pipes are being smoked, I hope.

Answer 9

Favorable traits, that are heritable, become more common by generations in a population of organisms. Unfavorable traits, which are heritable, become less common in the same population we are speaking of; generally. Go here for much info that is easy to understand.

http://www.talkorigins.org

Answer 10

well he thought that man had developed from monkies/apes. he beleives that man went throu stages before reaching the final one. first it was the ramepithicus, where many human lifestyle was not developed as yet like speech. then you ave the australepithicus-->homo erectus-->homo sapiens (thats us).

Basically darwin believes that organisms evolve to meet special requirements of the environmen (adaptation)

i think you should read it. You should find it pretty intresting to discovere new things or probally laugh at what darwin thinks.