Thoeries Of Evolution

Below is a free term papers summary of the paper "Thoeries Of Evolution." If you sign up, you can be reading the rest of this term papers in under two minutes. Registered users should login to view this term paper.

Term Paper Title	Thoeries Of Evolution
# of Words	1711
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	6.84

Thoeries of Evolution

Thoeries of Evolution

     Evolution is the process by which living organisms originated on earth
and have changed their forms to adapt to the changing environment.  The earliest
known fossil organisms are the single-celled forms resembling modern bacteria;
they date from about 3.4 billion years ago.  Evolution has resulted in
successive radiations of new types of organisms, many of which have become
extinct, but some of which have developed into the present fauna and flora of
the world (Wilson 17).
     Evolution has been studied for nearly two centuries.  One of the
earliest evolutionists was Jean Baptiste de Lamarck, who argued that the
patterns of resemblance found in various creatures arose through evolutionary
modifications of a common lineage.  Naturalists had already established that
different animals are adapted to different modes of life and environmental
conditions; Lamarck believed that environmental changes evoked in individual
animals direct adaptive responses that could be passed on to their offspring as
inheritable traits.  This generalized hypothesis of evolution by acquired
characteristics was not tested scientifically during Lamarck's lifetime.
        A successful explanation of evolutionary processes was proposed by
Charles Darwin.  His most famous book, On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection (1859), is a landmark in human understanding of nature.
Pointing to variability within species, Darwin observed that while offspring
inherit a resemblance to their parents, they are not identical to them.  He
further noted that some of the differences between offspring and parents were
not due soley to the environment but were themselves often inheritable.  Animal
breeders were often able to change the characteristics of domestic animals by
selecting  for reproduction those individuals with the most desirable qualities.
Darwin reasoned that, in nature, individuals with qualities that made them
better adjusted to their environments or gave them higher reproductive
capacities would tend to leave more offspring; such individuals were said to
have higher fitness.  Because more individuals are born than survive to breed,
constant winnowing of the less fit-a natural selection-should occur, leading to
a population that is well adapted to the environment it inhabits.  When
environmental conditions change, populations require new properties to maintain
their fitness.  Either the survival of a sufficient number of individual...

This is not the end of the termpaper! Register below to see the complete version of this term paper.

Membership Plans	Credit Card	Check

1 month membership

3 month membership (You Save 50%)

6 month membership (You Save 67%)

Copyright © 2002-2007 Mid Term Papers. All rights reserved. This term papers website is used for research purposes only.
If you have forgotten your username or password, please click here.
If you like to cancel your account, please click here.

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 8 - 9 - 10 - 11 - 12 - 13 - 14 - 15 - 16 - 17 - 18 - 19 - 20 - 21 - 22