Evolution and Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin 
wrote The Origin of Species in 1857. He had been traveling
aboard ship when he and
the crew passed through the area of the Galapagos islands.
He noticed that their were numerous finches
in the area. But on every island the finches were
slightly different. He postulated that the only way to
the difference was if one type of finch had originally
been blown out to sea and over a period of time
they had migrated to the other islands. After a
while the island s became more isolated from each other
and the finches began to change and adapt to their new
environment. This theory became his inspiration
for his book The Origin of Species. (By the way
if any of this is wrong feel free to e-mail me and I will
correct my mistakes.)
In his book Darwin postulated five theories which I will
show can be proven later in this page.
1. Overproduction: all organisms produce more
offspring than will survive to the next generation
2. Variations: some organisms within a species
are better equipped to survive than others due to
variable traits.
3. Natural Selection: The individuals that survive
and reproduce do so because they have traits that are
better suited to their environment.
4. Survival of the Fittest: the organisms best
adapted to their enivironment will live on to produce more
offspring and pass on those traits to that offspring.
5. Evoltion: a species will evolve as a result
of the acculmulation of variation in traits and as a reslut of
natural selection. This will lead to an organism
better adapted to their environment.
Most Scientists today champion the Theory of Evolution.
Evidence for Evolution
Chloroplasts and Mitochondria
Chloroplasts and mitochondria are part of Eukaryotic cells
(cells that contain their DNA in a nucleus).
Prokaryotes are bacteria. Chloroplasts are the
organelles plants use to absorbe sunlight and turn it into
energy, while mitochondria are the organells that animal
cells use to turn the energy they receive from
other organisms into energy usable by them. Both
types of organelle contain their own DNA that
seems to be closer related to the DNA found in Prokaryotes
in that it is not contained inside a nucleus.
Because of this there is a widely held belief that these
organelles were once free living Prokayotes that
have been ingested by Pre-Eukaryotic cells. The
cells eventually found that it was advantagous to live
together as one. (Think about it. Both cells
are getting something to benefit themselves by living
together. The Eukaryote is getting a great deal
more energy than it would otherwise, and the
Prokaryote gets protection from other predators and free
food). In other words they are symbionts.
These cells seem to reproduce without any signal from
the Eukaryote.
Moths in England During the Industrial Revolution
When the Industrial Revolution began in England all the moths
on the tree's were white (Since the tree's
they sat on were white this makes sense, their color
is a protection from predatory birds. Their coloring
allowed them to hide against the tree by blending into
it.) The scientists of the time began to notice a
change in the moth coloring as the Industrial Revolution
rolled on. During the revolution a great deal of
black smoke was being belched into the air by the factories.
This smoke was landing on the tree's and
changing it's color. The light colored moths began
to disappear. It wasn't long before the scientists
began to realize why. The white moths were more
noticable to the birds because they stood out against
the dark bark on the tree's. The dark colored moth's
(which had previously been a very rare occurance)
were now more adapted to their environment. The
bird's had trouble seeing the dark colored moth's and
for this reason the dark colored moths survived to reproduce
while the light colored one's died out. This
is an excellant example of Natural Selection at work.
For those who wish to know the reason the change
happened so much more swiftly with the moths than it
does elsewhere is because insects have many
generations in a much shorter time period than creatures
like mammals. (Insects can have millions of
eggs and surviving larvae in one summer while we will
normally have a maximum of three children (in
the case of triplets).
