CHARLES DARWIN

• Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist,

geologist, and biologist, widely known for
contributing to the understanding of evolutionary
biology.

• He is most famous for his theory called

“natural selection”
 THEORY
• Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution states that
evolution happens by natural selection.

• Individuals with species show variation in physical

characteristics. This variation is because of
differences in their genes.
 VARIATIONS

• The differences in the characteristics of

the individuals with a species.

• Such as, eye color, height, and body

mass differ between individuals in a
population.

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 GENES

• Carry information that makes you who

you are and what you look like.

• Passed from generation to generation.

NATURAL SELECTION
• Individuals with characteristics best suited to their
environment are more likely to survive and more
likely to reproduce and pass their genes to their
children.

• Individuals that are poorly adapted to their

environment are less likely to survive and
reproduce. Therefore, their genes are less likely to
be passed on to the next generation.

• As a consequence, those individuals most suited to

their environment survive and are given enough time
for their species to gradually evolve.
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Fundamental Ideas
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Species change over time and space.

• Representatives of species living today

differ from those living in the recent past,
and populations in different geographic
regions today differ slightly in form of
behavior. These differences extend into
the fossil record, which provides ample
support for this claim.
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All organisms share common ancestors with other organisms

• For example, humans shared a common ancestor with

Chimpanzees about 8 million years ago, with Whales about
60 million years ago, and with Kangaroos over 100 million
years ago. Shared ancestry explains the similarities of
Organisms that are classified together: there are similarities
that reflect the inheritance of traits from a common
ancestor.
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Evolutionary change is gradual.

• This claim was supported by the long episodes of gradual

change in Organism in the fossil record and talk that no
naturalist had observed and the sudden appearance of a
new species in Darwin's time. Since then, biologists and
paleontologists have documented a broad spectrum of
slow rapid rates of evolutionary change with lineages.
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The primary mechanism of change over

time is natural selection. This mechanism
causes changes in the properties (traits) of
organisms within lineages from
generation to generation.
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Four Components of Darwin’s Process of Natural Selection

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Variation

• Organisms within populations exhibit individual variations of appearance and behavior.

• May involve body size, hair color, facial markings, voice properties, and the number of
offspring.

• On the other hand, some traits show little to no variation among individuals. for example, the
number of eyes in vertebrates.
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Inheritance

• Some traits are consistently passed on from

parent to offspring.

• Some traits are heritable whereas other traits

are strongly influenced by environmental
conditions and show weak heritability.
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High rate of population growth

• Most populations have more offspring each

year than local resource resources can
support leading to a struggle for resources.

• Each generation experiences substantial

mortality.
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Differential survival and production

• Individuals possessing traits well suited

for the struggle for local resources will
contribute more offspring to the next
generation
 SUMMARY Fundamental Ideas
• Darwin’s Theory of evolution fundamentally changed the direction of
future scientific thought, though it was built on a growing body of
thought that began to question prior ideas about the natural world.

• The core of Darwin’s theory is natural selection, a process that occurs

over successive generations and is defined as the differential
reproduction of genotypes.

• Natural selection requires heritable variation in a given trait and

differential survival and reproduction associated with the possession
of that trait.

• Examples of natural selection are well=documented both by

observation and through the fossil record.