Charles Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. He lived a long life from 1809 to 1882. During that life span, he proposed that all species may have descended from common ancestors, and since then, this has become a foundational concept in the field of science.
His controversial book, “On the Origin of Species,” published in 1959, consisted of detailed observations explaining the concepts of common descent through the use of homologies between humans and other mammals. He outlined sexual selection as the cause for differences between races.
The concept of natural selection also came to light, explaining that there is a recurring struggle for existence where any variation that is deemed profitable to an individual will increase chances of survival, emphasizing the link with survival of the fittest. This book ended with the last word being the only variant of “evolved” found throughout his first five editions of the book.
Darwin’s work consisted of 4 postulates. He declared that individuals in a population have variations which make them unique, some of these variations are passed on to offspring, some individuals are better able to survive and have more children than others due to the inherited variations, and finally, variations that increase survival and reproductive success will have a greater chance of being passed on than those that do not.
Although all of these findings and controversial ideas came to light in 1959 with Darwin’s sold out book, the term evolution was only written in 1971, in his, “The Descent of Man,” and from then on became associated with this thematic. The rest is history. Literally.
Although at this point, hope for humanity remains at an all time low, raising the question, are we regressing as a species?
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 