Adapt and Overcome Life encompasses a broad range of organisms, from single cell bacteria, to complex mammals with traits specific to their environments. It was long believed that God, the maker of all things, created all living organisms in his own image as described in the Bible. It wasn 't until the 19th century that the theory of creationism was truly rivaled and people started to doubt that God was the reason beings are the way they are. The new theory, the theory of evolution, stated that species, including humanity, have evolved over long periods of time changing and adapting to their environments. Complimenting the theory of evolution, genetics research introduced the rules of hereditary proving that evolution occurs on a molecular
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It was new and different, but Darwin wasn 't the first person to believe living organisms have evolved with time. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was one of the first to suggest that traits acquired from the parent organism are transferred to the offspring. Because Lamarck came before Darwin, he took all of the criticism for announcing that the change of organic life occurs in nature and not by God. Lamarck believed that when an animal is forced to adapt to their environment they will. For example, a giraffe with a short neck is unable to eat the leaves at the top of the tree, so the giraffe will adapt and grow a longer neck. Once the giraffes with the longer necks procreate, their offspring will acquire the long neck like their parents. The offspring can then go through the same process as their parents until giraffes eventually have the long necks of modern giraffes. Lamarck, along with Darwin, believed that organisms evolve from simple to more complex organisms; they both also believed that evolution occurs over extended periods of time. However, this is where the similarities …show more content…
From the start Mendel 's desire was to understand the rules of heredity; it was well known that plants could be cross pollinated to create a hybrid with characteristics of both parent plants. What Gregor Mendel found out was that the rules of heredity apply to all complex organisms, meaning the same rules apply to humans as they do for mice or plants. Mendel 's work with pea plants showed that there were seven characteristics that could be inherited and the offspring either had them or didn 't, there was no blending. Mendel was also able to prove actions that change the parent physically during the parents ' lifetime does not show up in the offspring. He also determined that there are dominant and repressive characteristics which explains how certain characteristics can skip
It was new and different, but Darwin wasn 't the first person to believe living organisms have evolved with time. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was one of the first to suggest that traits acquired from the parent organism are transferred to the offspring. Because Lamarck came before Darwin, he took all of the criticism for announcing that the change of organic life occurs in nature and not by God. Lamarck believed that when an animal is forced to adapt to their environment they will. For example, a giraffe with a short neck is unable to eat the leaves at the top of the tree, so the giraffe will adapt and grow a longer neck. Once the giraffes with the longer necks procreate, their offspring will acquire the long neck like their parents. The offspring can then go through the same process as their parents until giraffes eventually have the long necks of modern giraffes. Lamarck, along with Darwin, believed that organisms evolve from simple to more complex organisms; they both also believed that evolution occurs over extended periods of time. However, this is where the similarities …show more content…
From the start Mendel 's desire was to understand the rules of heredity; it was well known that plants could be cross pollinated to create a hybrid with characteristics of both parent plants. What Gregor Mendel found out was that the rules of heredity apply to all complex organisms, meaning the same rules apply to humans as they do for mice or plants. Mendel 's work with pea plants showed that there were seven characteristics that could be inherited and the offspring either had them or didn 't, there was no blending. Mendel was also able to prove actions that change the parent physically during the parents ' lifetime does not show up in the offspring. He also determined that there are dominant and repressive characteristics which explains how certain characteristics can skip