Human evolution

opposite ends of the topic. I will start with the ones who, contrary to the last chapter when they were the ones on opposite sides, completely disagree. Professor David Davies is an evolutionary biologist, so naturally on this position, he is for evolution. Davies starts his argument with mentioning that there are many different organisms on the planet and that they all share a common ancestor. Davies also states that there are exact dates for finding common ancestry through fossil records. He…

Theories of evolution started before Darwin’s specific one by natural selection. The most prominent and perhaps influential on Darwin was Lamarck’s theory of “evolution by willing”, or that physical changes during an animal’s lifetime would be passed to offspring, in that it laid the foundation for his more developed explanation for evolution (Mayr, 1982). Darwin believed in evolution several before developing his theory of natural selection, he objected to Lamarck’s theory due to the lack of…

Although natural selection is commonly perceived to be a mechanism of Darwinian evolution, it is scientifically impossible for this process to justify Darwin’s claim that natural selection causes species diversity from a common ancestor. Natural selection, commonly referred to as survival of the fittest, is defined as follows, “a natural process that results in the survival and reproductive success of individuals or groups best adjusted to their environment and that leads to the…

The evolution of new organisms and their origins are discussed in Ted Daeschler and Neil Shubin’s Fossil Discovery and the Origin of Tetrapods. Tetrapod are species that have four limbs and originated from finned animals. According to Daeschler and Shubin, the oldest evidence of tetrapod is the 375 million years old Tikaalik roseae. This species helped aid in the discovery of how species transitioned from “fish-to-tetrapod.” Aquatic animals and land animals have different characteristics due to…

Event: Scopes Monkey Trial Information on the event: John Thomas Scopes was a young high school substitute teacher, was hired by the ACLU or the American Civil LIberties Union to teach evolution, the theory that animals change over time based off surroundings; this theory states that humans descended from apes. This went against the butlers act and a Tennessee state law that made it a misdemeanor to teach any theory that opposed Creationism as taught by the bible. The theory of…

Biological Theories of Race at the Millennium, by Joseph L. Graves Jr. discusses the concept of race throughout human history. He discusses how humans perceive race before Darwin’s discoveries, in colonial America, and looks at eugenics. He presents common theories and “truths” about race for the era in each time period. He starts the book by comparing the story the Emperor's New Clothes to how humans perceive race. He makes the connection through the mass majority going along with who is in…

Since the publication of Charles Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species in 1859, people had used Darwin’s biological concept of evolution and applied it to the modern human realm. This concept became known as social Darwinism. Social Darwinists, such as Herbert Spencer and William Graham Sumner argue that only the strongest, and most capable can succeed in society. Social Darwinism promotes “survival of the fittest”, and rejects government regulation of businesses. According to Sumner, “Persons…

Charles Darwin is the father of evolution by natural selection and was seen as a figurehead for logical and pure reasoning. Even today the image of Darwin is one of the most circulated and recognizable images. In the nineteenth-century Darwin had a cultish following from the public, but that did not mean that everyone accepted his work as fact. Those who did accept his work were quick to expand the ideas presented by Darwin and use them to justify their own cause. One of these was the use of…

BIO103 3/2/17 Professor Van Breukelen Chapter 5-Ecosystems and Living Organisms 1. How do biologists define evolution? Biologists define evolution as the cumulative genetic changes that occur in a population of organisms over time. 2. What are Darwin’s four premises of evolution by natural selection? 1. High Productive Capacity- Each species produce more offspring than will survive to maturity. 2. Heritable Variation- Individuals vary in…

In a world of everything chairs, plants, houses, spaceships, abortion, smartphones, love and death there is one word for it all life. Life is the one word that describes everything in just one word. Life is everything. The word life is so complicated that it does not just mean a living organism it means so much more. We are so smart that we question everything and create too many problems for ourselves. What is the creation story; how did we get here, from God or gods, aliens or from nature?…