natural selection – process by whch populations become adapted to the environment. The fitness of an individual is measured by how well its offspring reproduce – i.e. how many offspring that survive and reproduce does an individual produce ? Charles Darwin studdied and closly watched peppered moths (Biston Betularia) in their natural habbitat. The peppered moths are light colored with darker areas of color. Like humans, however, these moths can be found in a range of pigmentation from very black to very white and all shades in between.He watched durring the Industrial Revolution in the middle of the 18th century. Soot from the factories was starting to discolor the trees making the moths visable to passing predators. The different colored moths all belong to the same species; they reproduce with each other, and the color difference depends primarily on alternate alleles for a single gene. The black moths were presumably produced by mutation: biochemical change in DNA that makes up the genes for a trap. Under the Hardy-Weinberg Principle it is stated that the frequencecy of dominat and resessive alleles is the same from generation to generation. This was not he case.
Peppered moths rest during the day on tree trunks, where they are vulnerable to being eaten by birds. In pre-industrial England, tree trunks were gray. Gray moths are well camouflaged on gray tree trunks; black moths stand out. It has been shown experimentally (by Kettlewell) that in areas with gray tree trunks, black moths are much more likely to be eaten by birds than are gray moths (presumably because black moths are much easier for the birds to see.) In industrial areas, because black moths avoided being eaten by birds, they survived better and therefore reproduced more (had higher fitness.) As a result, each generation, more and more of the offspring born came from black parents and inherited the black coloration, since the color differences between moths (gray versus black) are genetic. After many moth generations, almost all the moths in industrial areas were black. The black moths became a subspecies of the Biston betularia. Black coloration is an adaptation to an environment with black tree trunks; that is, it has evolved through natural selection because black individuals have higher fitness in forests with black tree trunks than do gray moths. Darwin did many experiments to prove the evolution in the moths.
The Term Paper on Gray Levels Image Color Images
5. 2 Images: Information without Words or Numbers Images play a fundamental role in the representation, storage, and transmission of important information throughout our professional and personal lives. In many professions, including publishing, art, film making, architecture, and medicine, it is crucial to be able to represent and manipulate information in image form. Furthermore, with the ...
He tested the chemicals in the soot to make sure that they were not causing a mutation in the moths. The chemical ratio was foung to be higher than normal. Scientists concluded that it was mutation. He then put a spot on the underside of the moth so that he could keep an acurate recorde of the cencus of moths that had evolved and were now black. He placed the dot of paint on the underside so that in the rain the paint would not come off. Another reason for the placement of the paint was so if the moth was attacted then the paint would not scratch off. The paint was a good method of distinguising the moths. It is like tagging birds orother animals. If the moths had not been recaptured then Darwin would not have know how many moths returned alive. Since it was a possibility that the paint could come off, his count was not completely accurate. Another experiment was preformed, in this Darwin put light moths on a dark tree. This showed that the chief predator of the moth was the birds. When both coloration of moths were placed on the tree trunk it showed that the light mothes were most likely to be prayed upon. In a poluted forest the darkk moth is most apt to survive and flurish. In the unpoluted forest where the trees were still covered with lichen the light moths survive better.
The Essay on Light Saber Time One Man
There was once a young man who set forth to accomplish a great feat. On a quest for enrichment and knowledge his journey led him to an institute of higher learning. There he was to amass an immense amount of knowledge and discover secrets only a small portion of society possessed. But this place was far away... it was a new land of snow-covered hills and a beverage called Busch Light. No longer ...
I feel that it is not likely that the dark colored moths existed before the Indidustrial Revolution. If they had been around they would have quickly died out because the trees were not covered in soot, they were light. This altered the generic equilibrium between the light and dark moths, the dark became dominant in this area. The population of the light colored was no longer able to survive in the forests that were coated in soot. The remaining light colored moths migrated to other forests where thy could survive. This ment that even more dark moths were in the forest where Darwin was studding the moths Jean Baptiste Pierre Lamarck was a French botanist and invertebrate zoologist who formulated one of the earliest theories of evolution. He was the main pre-Darwinian evolutionist. Sent to a Jesuit school in Amiens, Lamarck received a classical education until 1759. That year, his father died, and Lamarck entered the military and began to study plants. In 1768 he left military service and studied medicine in Paris for four years, during which time he became interested in meteorology, chemistry, and shell collecting. At the same time, he wrote a work on his botanical observations, then French naturalist George Louis Buffon published in 1779 as Flore Fran?ois (Plants of France).
As a result of the book and his friendship with Buffon, Lamarck was elected to the Academy of Sciences. This election was a prestigious honor. Lamarck’s real contribution to biology lies in his division of animal life into the vertebrate and invertebrate categories. He recognized that there was a major break along the lines of those species (fish, apes, people, horses, cats, dogs) that have backbones, and those species (lobsters, crabs, insects, conches, snails, oysters) that have none. Lamarck’s controversial reputation comes from the belief that he asserted that living beings change by consciously willing to change. Lamarck offered a “theory of evolution” in the early 1800s (the year that Charles Darwin was born).
The Essay on Dinosaurs and Birds
Are birds really dinosaurs or are they simply related? That is a question that has gained new life in recent years due to the overwhelming facts the are pouring in from newly found fossils and studies from fossils that have been found in the past. Two groups have formed in the study of this question: those who believe birds are a direct result of dinosaurs and those who feel dinosaurs and birds ...
Lamarck’s First Law stated: “…frequent and sustained use of any organ gradually strengthens, develops, and enlarges that organ, and gives it a strength proportional to the time that is has been used”. This first law is based on the common observation of the development of as musculature and the immune system through protracted use, and it is not unreasonable. However, his Second Law is untrue: “Everything which nature has caused individuals to gain or lose as a result of the influence of environmental conditions to which their race has been exposed… is conveyed by generation to new individuals…” Lamarck’s concept of evolution was discredited because he emphasized the inheritance of acquired characteristics as a mechanism of evolution. “Do we not therefore perceive that by the action of the laws of organization . . . nature has in favorable times, places, and climates multiplied her first germs of animality, given place to developments of their organizations, . . . and increased and diversified their organs? Then. . . aided by much time and by a slow but constant diversity of circumstances, she has gradually brought about in this respect the state of things which we now observe.
How grand is this consideration, and especially how remote is it from all that is generally thought on this subject!” Text of a lecture given by Lamarck at the Mus?e National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, Lamarck’s scientific theories were largely ignored or attacked during his lifetime; Lamarck never won the acceptance and esteem of his colleagues Buffon and Cuvier, and he died in poverty and obscurity. Today, the name of Lamarck is associated merely with a discredited theory of heredity, the “inheritance of acquired traits.” However, Charles Darwin, Lyell, Haeckel, and other early evolutionists acknowledged him as a great zoologist and as a forerunner of evolution. Would Lamark have agreed with Darwin? That is the question. Since Lamarck belived that creatures willed themselves to change, he would have felt that the moths felt the need to change. He may have supported natural selction but only in the case that the moths knew that they had to change to survive. Darwin belived that it was a natural process that took place over time, throught many generations. The fossil record can help to show evolution. The recored shows slow, gradual evolution occurred, it was observed that a change took place over a certain period of time.
The Term Paper on Darwin’s Voyage
1. what was the original purpose of Darwin’s voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle, and what was the ultimate significance of the Voyage? The original purpose of Darwin’s voyage was to learn and discover more about biology and to gain insight on plant and animal species. The stated intent of the voyage was to obtain evidence that supported the biblical theory of creation as well as chart poorly known parts ...
It didn’t happen in a night. After all, if life took millions of years for the earth to arrive at its’ present state of development. The fossils show suddle change but if compare two fossils with a span of 1,000 years or so you would be able to clearly see the change. After periodic occurances of extinction there was mass growth. This happened because when the organisms died they rotted and decayed which mad the soil more furtile and supple. A good example of this is in a forest fire when the trees and the mat of vegatation on the forest floor burn. It gives off oxygen and clears out the dead vegitation to allow for new growth. These new forms flurish from the fire. When England passed it’s clean air acts in the 1960’s the soot was not coating the trees anymore because polution was minimized. This put the dark colored moths at a disadvantage. Now the birds could see the dark moths on the light trees. Slowly the majority of moths became light colored again. Since the DNA code is basacilly the same in all organisms this suggests that all of a species can be traced back to a common ancester. With evolution this suggests that all DNA stays primarily but slight changes may cause changes in apperance such as with the moths changing shades. Evolution uses genetic engeneering techniques. Why polar bears have white fur. Polar bears have white fur so that they blend in with their artic habitat. If polar bears had different color fur then their predators would have easily spotted they and the population would be in danger of extintion. The white fur blends in with the snow and the ice. They are suited for their enviroment.
Dinosaurs are still around. Their structures remain in birds. The bird is the most closly related animal to the dinosaurs. It’s wings were found in dinosaurs such as taryldactles. Therefore dinosaurs exist through their relative, the bird. evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of birds being the descendants of a maniraptoran dinosaur, probably something similar (but not identical) to a small dromaeosaur. In 1860 a “transitional form” between two vertebrate groups (traditional reptiles and birds) was found; just what Darwin expected would eventually be found. Many scientists saw incredible similarities between birds and the theropod dinosaurs. In short birds are avian dinosaurs existing today. The disaperance of the dinosaurs was caused by a meteor hitting earth. The Chicxulub Crater (where the meteor is supposed to have hit) is dated back to 65 million years ago and is over 10 kilometers in diameter. Also tektites and stishovites, rocks that are made from great heat and pressure, have been found to be around 65 million years old. They are most likely caused by a cosmic collision. Louis Alvarez came up with the theory of a Nuclear Winter causing the demise of the dinosaur.
The Essay on Evolution Theory Charles Darwin
Comparison of the evolution theories of Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck In this essay I am going to compare the theories of Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Charles Darwin was a British Scientist who lived between 1809-1882. He laid down the foundation of modern evolutionary theory with his concept of the development of life through the slow working process of natural selection. ...
When the asteroid crashed into the earth a huge amount of dust was thrown into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun’s rays. This would stop all photosynthesis causing the death of most of the plantlife, meaning death for the herbivours due to lack of food. This in turn would devastate the carnivours in the food chain. The temperature would also drop and extinction would not be determined by the dinosaurs’ eating habits, it would affect them all the same. In the best scenario, the temperature drop would just slow the dinosaur down, preventing it from getting enough food. Charles Darwin was born on February 12, 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. He was the British naturalist who became famous for his theories of evolution. Like several scientists before him,Darwin believed all the life on earth evolved (developed gradually) over millions of years from a fewcommon ancestors. From 1831 to 1836 Darwin served as naturalist aboard the H.M.S. Beagle on a British science expedition around the world. In South America Darwin found fossils of extinct animals that were similar to modern species. On the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean he noticed many variations among plants and animals of the same general type as those in South America.
The expedition visited places around the world, and Darwin studied plants and animals everywhere he went, collecting specimens for further study. When Darwin return to London Darwin conducted thorough research of his notes and specimens. Out of this study grew several related theories: one, evolution did occur; two, evolutionary change was gradual, requiring thousands to millions of years; three, the primary mechanism for evolution was a process called natural selection; and four, the millions of species alive today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called “specialization.” Darwin’s work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed the idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided talking about the theological and sociological aspects of his work, but other writers used his theories to support their own theories about society. Darwin was a reserved, thorough, hard working scholar who concerned himself with the feelings and motions not only of his family, but friends and peers as well. I read the conclusion and recapitulation in the book, this was chapter 14.
The Essay on Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
The mechanisms for individuals in a population to survive heterogeneous habitats have been a strong debate within the scientific community. The native European Littorina obtusata are a great model organism to study Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. This is because of their vast phenotypic characteristics, particularly their evolving shell thickness throughout history due to ...
Here is a breif recap of it. As natural selection works solely by and for the good of each being, all corporeal and mental endowment will tend to progress toward perfection. This was the main idea in the book. Darwin felt that only the strongest organism and the one that was best adapted to it’s surrounding would survive, he called this idea survival of the fittest. Darwin’s principles that of survival of the fittest and natural selection pertain to developmental psychology. The processes of natural selection works equally over all parts and forms of function. If something is functional if it is adaptive, mental activity and behavior have function too. Darwin realized that developmental tradition have current forms had several previous forms and will have future forms. Behavior has form. Patterns of behavior in all species tend to follow an orderly genetic sequence in their beginings. I feel that Darwin was correct in most of his theories. Many of them have been proven even more so since his lifetime. He contributed a huge amount to the sciences especiall in the field of evoultion. This book helped me to better understand his veiws and stand on evolution, I also learned what made him persue this topic.
