Introduction To Evolution

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whereas others
prove to be adaptive, and their numbers increase. The elimination of the unfit,
or the "survival of the fittest," is known as Natural Selection because it is
nature that discards or favors a particular being. Evolution takes place only
when natural selection operates on apopulation of organisms containing diverse
inheritable forms.

HISTORY

Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759) was the first to
propose a general theory of evolution. He said that hereditary material,
consisting of particles, was transmitted from parents to offspring. His opinion
of the part played by natural selection had little influence on other
naturalists.
Until the mid-19th century, naturalists believed that each species
was created separately, either through a supreme being or through spontaneous
generation the concept that organisms arose fully developed from soil or water.
The work of the Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus in advancing the classifying
of ...

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that they are used, disuse of organs leads to their disappearance.
Later, the science of Genetics disproved Lamarck's theory, it was found that
acquired traits cannot be inherited.

Malthus

Thomas Robert Malthus, an English clergyman, through his work An
Essay on the Principle of Population, had a great influence in directing
naturalists toward a theory of natural selection. Malthus proposed that
environmental factors such as famine and disease limited population growth.

Darwin

After more than 20 years of observation and experiment, Charles
Darwin proposed his theory of evolution through natural selection to the
Linnaean Society of London in 1858. He ...

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