Today, few will deny Darwin's enormous contribution to biology. The name of this scientist is familiar to every adult. Many of you can say in a nutshell about what Darwin's contribution to biology is. However, only a few can tell in detail about the theory he created. After reading the article, you will be able to do this.
Achievements of the ancient Greeks
Before describing Darwin's contribution to biology, we will briefly describe the achievements of other scientists on the path to discovering the theory of evolution.
Anaximander, an ancient Greek thinker, back in the 6th century BC. e. said that man descended from animals. His ancestors were allegedly covered in scales and lived in water. A little later, in the 4th century. BC e., Aristotle noted that the beneficial characteristics that randomly appear in animals, nature preserves in order to make them more viable in the future. And brothers who do not have these signs die. It is known that Aristotle created the "ladder of beings." He arranged the organisms from the simplest to the most complex. This staircase began with stones, and ended with a man.
Transformism and Creationism
The Englishman M. Hale in 1677 first used the term "evolution" (from the Latin. "Deployment"). He designated them the unity of the historical and individual development of organisms. In biology, transformism appeared in the 18th century . This is the doctrine of how various species of plants and animals have changed. It was opposed to creationism, according to which God created the world, and all species remain unchanged. Transformism advocates include French scientist Georges Boufffort, as well as English researcher Erasmus Darwin. The first theory of evolution was proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck in his 1809 work Philosophy of Zoology. However, it was Charles Darwin who revealed its true factors. The contribution to the biology of this scientist is invaluable.
Merit of Charles Darwin
He owns an evolutionary theory, scientifically substantiated. He outlined it in a work entitled "The Origin of Species through Natural Selection." This book was published in 1859 by Darwin. The contribution to biology can be briefly described as follows. Darwin believed that the driving forces of evolution are hereditary variability, as well as the struggle for existence. Under conditions of struggle, the inevitable result of this variability is natural selection, which is the predominant survival of the fittest individuals of one kind or another. Thanks to their participation in breeding, beneficial hereditary changes are accumulated and summarized, as Charles Darwin noted.
His contribution to biology was recognized by scientists who continued research in this direction. The development of science further confirmed that the Darwinian theory is correct. Therefore, today the terms "evolutionary doctrine" and "Darwinism" are often used as synonyms.
So, we briefly described Darwin's contribution to biology. We offer a closer look at the theory he created.
Observations that prompted Darwin to the theory of evolution
At first I began to think about the reasons why there are certain similarities and differences between species, Charles Darwin. Contribution to biology, briefly characterized by us, he made far from immediately. At first, they had to study the achievements of their predecessors, as well as make several trips. It was they who prompted the scientist to important thoughts.
He made the main find in South America, in geological deposits. These are the skeletons of giant edentulous, very similar to modern sloths and armadillos. In addition, Darwin was greatly impressed by the study of animal species living in the Galapagos Islands. The scientist found on these volcanic islands of recent origin similar species of finches, which are similar to mainland, but adapted to various food sources - flower nectar, insects, hard seeds. Charles Darwin concluded that these birds came to the island from the mainland. And the changes that occurred with them are explained by adaptation to new conditions of existence.
Charles Darwin raised the question that environmental conditions play a role in speciation. The scientist observed a similar picture and off the coast of Africa. Animals inhabiting the Cape Verde islands , despite a certain similarity with the species inhabiting the mainland, nevertheless differ from them by very significant features.
Darwin could not explain the creation of the species and the peculiarities of the development of the rodent tuco-tuco described by him. These rodents live underground in burrows. Sighted pups appear, which subsequently become blind. All these and many other facts significantly shook the scientist's faith in the creation of species. Darwin, having returned to England, set himself a large-scale task. He decided to solve the issue of the origin of the species.
Main works
Darwin's contribution to the development of biology is presented in several of his works. In 1859, in his work, he summarized the empirical material of breeding practice and biology contemporary to him. In addition, he used the results of his observations made during his travels. The round-the-world voyage he completed on the Beagle ship shed light on evolutionary factors of various kinds.
Charles Darwin supplemented the main work, The Origin of Species ..., with factual materials in his next book, published in 1868. It is known as the “Change of Pets and Crop Plants”. In another work, written in 1871 ("The Origin of Man and Sexual Selection"), the scientist hypothesized that man comes from a monkey-like ancestor. Today, many agree with the assumption made by C. Darwin. Contribution to biology allowed him to become a great authority in the scientific world. Many even forget that the origin of man from a monkey is just a hypothesis, which, although very likely, is still not yet fully proven.
The property of heredity and its role in evolution
Note that the Darwinian theory is based on the property of heredity, that is, the ability of organisms to repeat the types of metabolism and, on the whole, individual development in a series of generations. Together with variability, heredity provides the diversity and constancy of life forms. It is the basis of the evolution of the entire organic world.
Struggle for existence
"The struggle for existence" is a concept that is one of the main ones in the theory of evolution. Charles used it to refer to existing relationships between organisms. In addition, Darwin used it to describe the relationship between abiotic conditions and organisms. Abiotic conditions lead to the survival of the fittest individuals and to the death of the less fit ones.
Two forms of variability
Regarding variability, Darwin identified two main forms. The first of these is a certain variability. This is the ability of all individuals of one or another species under certain environmental conditions to react in the same way to these conditions (soil, climate). The second form is uncertain variability. Its nature does not correspond to the observed changes in external conditions. Uncertain variability in modern terminology is called a mutation.
Mutation
Mutation, unlike the first form, has a hereditary character. According to Darwin, in subsequent generations the slight changes observed in the first increase. The scientist emphasized that in evolution the decisive role belongs to the uncertainty of variability. It is usually associated with harmful mutations or neutral ones, however, those that are called promising are also possible.
Evolution mechanism
According to Darwin, the inevitable result of hereditary variability and the struggle for existence is the survival and reproduction of new organisms that are most adapted to living in the appropriate environment. And in the course of evolution, the death of the unfit, that is, natural selection, occurs. Its mechanism acts in nature similarly to breeders, that is, indefinite and insignificant individual differences are formed, from which the necessary adaptations in organisms are then formed, as well as differences between species.
Charles Darwin spoke and wrote about all this, as well as much more. The contribution to biology, briefly described, is not limited to what we talked about. However, its main achievements were outlined in general terms. Now you can tell in detail about what contribution Darwin made to biology.