The mechanism of evolution

Evolution is not a modern concept. Since ancient times, a number of philosophers and naturalists (including Confucius and Aristotle in Greece) have suggested that complex species evolve from simpler pre-existing ones by a process of continuous and gradual change. However, it was not until the 19^th century that scientists came up with plausible mechanisms for evolution. The mechanism that is widely accepted among biologists today is called neo-Darwinism. It is modern theory based on the work of the nineteenth- century naturalist Charles Darwin.

Between 1831 and 1836, Darwin was the naturalist on board HMS Beagle, a research vessel engaged in mapping different parts of the world. After spending over three years surveying the coast of South America, the Beagle landed on the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Darwin compared the organisms on these islands with those on the South American mainland, and this led him to develop his theory of evolution. He came to the conclusion that, over successive generation, a new species comes into being by slow and gradual changes from a pre-existing one. He believed that these changes are brought about by a process which he called natural selection.

Darwin’s theory was based on three main observations:

1. Within a population are organisms with varying characteristics, and these variations are inherited (at least in part) by their offspring.

2. Organisms produce more offspring than are required to replace their parents.

3. On average, population numbers remain relatively constant and no population gets bigger indefinitely.

From these observations, Darwin came to the conclusion that within a population many individuals do not survive, or fail to reproduce. There is a “struggle for existence”. For example, members of the same population compete to obtain limited resources, and there is a struggle to avoid predation and disease, or to tolerate changes in environmental conditions such as temperature. In this struggle for existence those individuals that are best adapted to their environment will have a selective advantage: they will be more likely to survive and produce offspring than less well-adapted organisms.