Mehmood ul Hassan (BSEN01193001) Course: Biology II

Assignment-II: Evolution of Life

What is evolution?
In biology, evolution is the change in the characteristics of a species over several generations and relies
on the process of natural selection. The theory of evolution is based on the idea that all species? are
related and gradually change over time. Evolution relies on there being genetic variation? in a
population which affects the physical characteristics (phenotype) of an organism. Some of these
characteristics may give the individual an advantage over other individuals which they can then pass on
to their offspring.

What have genes got to do with it?

The mechanisms of evolution operate at the genomic level. Changes in DNA? sequences affect the
composition and expression? of our genes, the basic units of inheritance?. To understand how different
species have evolved we have to look at the DNA sequences in their genomes. Our evolutionary history
is written into our genome. The human genome looks the way it does because of all the genetic changes
that affected our ancestors. When DNA and genes in different species look very similar, this is usually
taken as evidence of them sharing ancestors. For example, humans and the fruit fly, Drosophila
melanogaster, share much of their DNA. 75 per cent of genes that cause diseases in humans are also
found in the fruit fly. DNA accumulates changes over time. Some of these changes can be beneficial, and
provide a selective advantage for an organism. Other changes may be harmful if they affect an
important, everyday function. As a result some genes do not change much. They are said to be
conserved.

Different types of evolution

Convergent evolution
When the same adaptations evolve independently, under similar selection pressures.For example, flying
insects, birds and bats have all evolved the ability to fly, but independently of each other.

Co-evolution
When two species or groups of species have evolved alongside each other where one adapts to changes
in the other. For example, flowering plants and pollinating insects such as bees.

Adaptive radiation
When a species splits into a number of new forms when a change in the environment makes new
resources available or creates new environmental challenges. For example, finches on the Galapagos
Islands have developed different shaped beaks to take advantage of the different kinds of food available
on different islands.

Evolution Definition
The term ‘evolution’ is widely used to denote the development through time of societies, cultures, and
more especially of living species. It is often contrasted with the view that these entities were divinely
created as we see them today, and is routinely (but incorrectly according to modern biological theory)
associated with the idea of progress. This article outlines the various models of evolution that have been
suggested to account for the development of life and social organization, and then shows how the
theories were formulated and popularized. Charles Darwinian evolutionary theory was against Islam.

Models of Evolution
The term ‘evolution’ is derived from the Latin evolutio, denoting the unrolling of a scroll. In the
eighteenth century it was applied to the growth of the embryo, then often described as the mere
expansion of a preformed miniature. This application was retained up to the nineteenth century, by
which time it was clear that the development of the embryo consisted of the progressive appearance of
more complex structures. The philosopher and sociologist Herbert Spencer generalized the term by
applying it to any process of natural progressive development, thereby creating the still common but
inaccurate belief that all evolution must be progressive. In particular, Spencer applied the term to the
development of societies and of life on earth Charles Darwin did not often use the term when describing
his theory of the origin of species, but by the end of the nineteenth century, this had become the most
common version of ‘evolution.’ However, Darwin’s theory did not imply an inevitable progression
toward complexity, and much controversy has surrounded the association between evolution and
progress. Darwin’s theory of natural selection now dominates biology and is being extended to many
other domains; it is but one of a number of mechanisms that have been suggested to explain evolution,
each of which has its own associated implications.

The History of Life

Much of the first generation of evolutionists’ efforts focused on reconstructing the course of the history
of life on earth from anatomical, embryological, biogeographical, and fossil evidence (Bowler, 1996).
Darwin himself treated this project with caution, but under the influence of the German biologist Ernst
Haeckel, a whole generation of evolutionists strove to complete it. They had some successes, but the
problems were much greater than they had anticipated and the project was sidelined by new
developments in biology at the beginning of the twentieth century. Darwin had stressed the
imperfection of the fossil record, but in a few important areas new discoveries helped to show how the
major steps in evolution had taken place. Elsewhere, anatomical and embryological evidence was used
to reconstruct evolutionary relationships. Darwin’s theory implied that it would be unlikely for the same
character to develop independently in different lines of evolution, so similarity of underlying structure
could be taken as evidence of common descent. Some non-Darwinian theories, however, postulated
predetermined trends that might generate similar structures independently. In embryology, Darwin’s
assumption that early stages of development would illustrate affinities was overtaken by Haeckel’s
recapitulation theory, according to which earlier stages could actually illustrate ancestral adult forms.
This way of thinking was a product of the progressionist way of thought, presupposing a privileged line
of development toward maturity. Only in biogeography did it become clear that evolution was a highly
irregular process, depending on the hazards of migration in a world where geological forces were
constantly remolding the topography.

Natural Selection and the Alternatives

Historians have focused on the debates over natural selection, but this is more a product of our modern
preoccupation with that mechanism than of its significance in late nineteenth-century biology. One
much discussed theme centers on Darwin’s concept of heredity, which was quite unlike the model of
unit character inheritance promoted by Mendelian genetics. It has even been argued that, without the
concept of non-blending unit characters, natural selection was fatally flawed. It is true that Darwin was
much concerned by Fleeming Jenkins’ 1867 review, which argued that if male and female parental
characters blend in the offspring, the advantages of a well-favored ‘sport’ or mutation would be diluted
rapidly. However, as A.R. Wallace pointed out, this objection is irrelevant if there is a continuous range
of variation in the population, which is the case for most characters (Gayon, 1998).

In fact, many of the objections to natural selection were intended only to show that evolution must be a
more purposeful process than any mechanism based on random variation would allow. One major
alternative that now became popular was the Lamarckian theory of the inheritance of acquired
characters, in which the animals’ own behavior directs their variation. Some objections to natural
selection were aimed at the whole idea of adaptive evolution and were intended to show that some
internally driven force directed the organisms’ variation. These were very much a product of the rival
developmental tradition that had become popular earlier in the century, especially in Germany. The
theory of orthogenesis supposed that variation was controlled by internal developmental forces that
generated linear evolutionary trends, while the theory of saltations assumed that macromutations could
somehow find new breeding populations (Bowler, 1983).

Human Origins and Social Evolution

Many religious thinkers objected to the idea that the human soul was the product of evolution from an
animal ancestry. Much of this initial opposition was overcome by stressing the purposeful nature of
evolution, allowing the appearance of humanity to be presented as the culmination of a divine plan
(Moore, 1979). Darwin’s theory of evolution threatened this assumption, and in his Descent of Man of
1871, he argued that humans had evolved from African apes, which had stood upright as an adaptation
to a new lifestyle on the open plains. Most late nineteenth-century accounts of human evolution,
however, stressed the expansion of the brain as the main driving force of the process. At the same time,
the idea of progressive evolution was applied to the history of human cultures and societies. Some
evolutionists, including Spencer, stressed competition as the driving force of progress, leading to the
charge that they were promoting a ‘social Darwinism’ designed to legitimize capitalist values. While
Darwin’s theory was certainly associated with this movement, it was by no means the only scientific
justification offered.

Cultural Evolutionism
Coincidentally with the Darwinian revolution, archaeologists undermined the belief that the
human race was a recent creation, and exposed a vast period of prehistory in which our ancestors
had used only stone tools. It was this initiative rather than any influence from Darwinism that led
anthropologists such as Edward B. Tylor to equate modern ‘savages’ (i.e., people with relatively
unsophisticated technology) with the ancestral stages through which civilized humans had passed
in prehistoric times on their march toward a more mature culture. Cultural evolutionism was a
product of the nineteenth-century developmental viewpoint, based on the ladder model of
progress (Bowler, 1989a). Tylor himself did not accept that humans had evolved from apes, but
other cultural evolutionists, especially John Lubbock, linked the two modes of evolution and
argued that ‘savages’ were biologically as well as culturally primitive – living examples of the
earlier stages in human biological and mental evolution. Herbert Spencer’s model of social
evolution, while stressing ostensibly the divergent nature of evolution, still presented ‘lower’
races as surviving primitives incapable of matching the mental powers of the Anglo-Saxons.
Evolution and islam:
The characters of Hazrat Adam and his wife Hawa appear in the Quran as the first man and
woman.The Quran states that they were created from clay and were brought to life by the
blowing of soul by God entering their bodies.While verses in the Quran and some Ahadith
indicate that God created Hazrat Adam first and that Hawa was created from Hazrat Adam a
few scholars proposed that the verses could have multiple interpretations.

Twe muslims believes that Hazrat Adam and Hawa were supernaturally created through a
miracle by Allah . In the past year there has been increased support for the idea that humans
evolved.

In Quran Allah says

“ And your Lord is the Free of need, the possessor of mercy. If He wills, he can do away with you and
give succession after you to whomever He wills, just as He produced you from the descendants of another
people”
This ayaah is seen as explaining that humans are descended from other people mean from human

So here Islam rejects theory of evolution by charles darwin

References:

Amundson, R., (2005). The Changing Role of the Embryo in Evolutionary Thought: The Roots of Evo-
Devo. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Bannister, R.C., (1979). Social Darwinism: Science and Myth in Anglo-American Social Thought. Temple
University Press, Philadelphia, PA.

Barkow, J.H., Cosmides, L., Tooby, J. (Eds.), (1992). The Adapted Mind. Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Birx, H. J. (1988). Human evolution. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas.