DARWINIAN THEORY

OF EVOLUTION
• The theory of evolution by natural selection, first formulated in
Darwin's book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, is the process
by which organisms change over time as a result of changes in
heritable physical or behavioral traits. Changes that allow an
organism to better adapt to its environment will help it survive and
have more offspring.
•Darwin’s revolutionary theory was that new species arise
naturally, by a process of evolution, rather than having
been created – forever immutable – by God.
•“Hence, both in space and time, we seem to be brought
somewhat near to that great fact – that mystery of
mysteries – the first appearance of new beings on this
Earth”.
• Brian Richmond – curator of human origins at the American
Museum of Natural History in New York City.

Two Main Point of Theory

• All life on Earth is connected and related to each other.
• Modifications of populations by natural selection, where some traits
were favored in and environment over others.
• Briana Pobiner – an anthropologist and educator at the Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. who specializes in the
study of human origins.

• The theory can be described as “descent with modification”

• The theory is sometimes described as “survival of the fittest”
- Here, “fitness” refers not to an organism’s strength or athletic ability, but rather
the ability to survive and reproduce.
• In the first edition of "On the Origin of Species" in 1859, Charles Darwin
speculated about how natural selection could cause a land mammal to turn into
a whale.
• Natural selection can change a species in small ways, causing a population to
change color or size over the course of several generations. This is called
"microevolution.“
• Given enough time and enough accumulated changes, natural selection can
create entirely new species, known as "macroevolution.“
• Darwin also described a form of natural selection that depends on an organism's
success at attracting a mate, a process known as sexual selection.
 The Five Theories Of Evolution:
• evolution as such
• common descent
• Gradualism
• Multiplication of species, and
• natural selection.
 Modern understanding
• He observed the pattern of evolution, but he didn't really know about
the mechanism.
• modern evolutionary synthesis
• Mutations are basically the raw material on which evolution acts,"
Pobiner said.
• Mutations are random, but selection for them is not random,"
Pobiner said.
• genetic drift
•A wealth of evidence

•Controversy
TIME TABLE OF ALL THE THINGS RELATED IN DARWINIAN THEORY OF EVOLUTION

Year Contributions Or Works Related in Darwin’s

Theory of Evolution

1740 In the 1740s, the French mathematician Pierre

Louis Maupertuis made the first known
suggestion that all organisms had a common
ancestor.
1744 - 1829 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed his theory of
the transmutation of species, the first fully
formed theory of evolution.

1795 The theory was proposed by James Hutton, a

Scottish geologist, and was later incorporated
into Charles Lyell's theory
of uniformitarianism. And, Darwin was
Influenced by Lyell’s Principles of Geology.
1848 - 1945 The term mutation was originally coined by
Dutch botanist Hugo De Vries to describe a
new approach to explain evolution

1859 The theory of evolution by natural selection,

first formulated in Darwin's book "On the
Origin of Species"

1871 Charles Darwin proposed the concept

of sexual selection

1929 Genetic drift was coined by a founder of

population genetics, Sewall Wright.