An important experiment during Darwin’s lifetime that was able to show the theory of natural selection to be true was William Dallinger’s experiment with microbes. Darwin actually knew of this experiment because Dallinger contacted him. The experiment was held in 1878, where Dallinger placed microbes and water into a copper vessel, then slowly raised the temperature in it. He did this over a span of months, bringing the temperature up to 150 degrees Fahrenheit. What Dallinger found was that the microbes were able to continue living and reproduce even at that high temperature. The microbes had evolved to be resistant to heat. They were capable of adapting to that hotter environment, but in the process lost the ability to be able to survive at
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With this huge amount, natural selection was more prone to happening since there was billions of different variations of the species. Microbes are able to reproduce much faster than plants, animals and humans. It could take thousands of years for generations of humans to span but microbes only roughly take a couple of weeks. Microbes can also be frozen without being killed during the process of experiment, making it easier for biologists to observe and study them whenever they want to; and not to worry about these microbes dying off during the experiment.
Microbes can be frozen for decades and still be able to revive once they are thawed. These microbes are considered a frozen fossil record because they can be frozen earlier in the timeline, then thawed out and compared to newer microbes from the present. This makes studying evolutionary change more precise. The frozen fossil record is different than actual fossil records because the actual fossils are found buried deep in Earth’s crust, like rock formation or sedimentary layer. We determine the age of the fossils through how far deep they are in the layers of the Earth, and where they are buried could determine some other information on how they could have evolved. From there, we compare it to other fossils found while
With this huge amount, natural selection was more prone to happening since there was billions of different variations of the species. Microbes are able to reproduce much faster than plants, animals and humans. It could take thousands of years for generations of humans to span but microbes only roughly take a couple of weeks. Microbes can also be frozen without being killed during the process of experiment, making it easier for biologists to observe and study them whenever they want to; and not to worry about these microbes dying off during the experiment.
Microbes can be frozen for decades and still be able to revive once they are thawed. These microbes are considered a frozen fossil record because they can be frozen earlier in the timeline, then thawed out and compared to newer microbes from the present. This makes studying evolutionary change more precise. The frozen fossil record is different than actual fossil records because the actual fossils are found buried deep in Earth’s crust, like rock formation or sedimentary layer. We determine the age of the fossils through how far deep they are in the layers of the Earth, and where they are buried could determine some other information on how they could have evolved. From there, we compare it to other fossils found while