Lineages

In the middle of the 19th century, Charles Darwin quivered the world with his theory of evolution. He proposed that all living things had descended from common ancestors. Over time, they are transformed by the process of natural selection that brings about constant change. This supposition deterred the idea of a God who created every single species. While some greeted Darwin’s theory enthusiastically, it also met widespread scepticism. Fyi several conspiracies prevail to this day. Darwin, however, provided a powerful formalism for his theory. He produced plenty of evidence to support his thesis, which did amount to proof in the eyes of many of his critics. Since Darwin’s time, however, scientists have amassed a lot of evidence supporting the evolutionary mechanisms proposed by Darwin. Darwin knew nothing about genes. It is pretty remarkable how findings in molecular biology show how evolutionary processes are based on genotype mutation, selection, and heredity.

Darwin was a pioneer of the theory of evolution, however he was not the first to wonder about the diversity of organisms. French scientist naturalist Jean Baptiste de Lamarck suggested that species transform over time 50 years before Darwin published his origin of species in 1859. Lamarck gave a thought to the mechanisms behind these evolutionary processes, suggesting that features and characteristics survived solely through use. He maintained, for example, that giraffes had long necks because they were constantly reaching up for leaves, and this acquired characteristic was passed on to succeeding generations. Unlike Darwin, Lamarck did not hit upon the principle of random variability and natural selection, by means of which only the better adapted survive. Some characteristics that result from probabilistic alterations to the genome prove useful and are retained, while others which confer no gain are lost.

Darwin was influenced during his early career by Lamarck’s work. However, by the time he began writing the seminal Origin of Species, he had disregarded virtually all of the French naturalist’s theories. Working at around the same time as Darwin, the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace also formulated a theory of evolution, which in many respects coincided with Darwin’s. The two scientists kept up a correspondence, but each developed his approach independently. Darwin was able to support his theoretical observations with the extensive evidence collected on his travels, which was something Wallace could not do.

Thanks to fossil remains, we now have a reasonably clear picture of how modern humans evolved from their ape-like ancestors. Nevertheless, the theory of evolution still has some loopholes, so extensive research is still needed.

Author: Aryan Gupta Edited By: Aviral Srivastava