7.

5 – ON THE ORIGIN OF
SPECIES
Pages 304 - 307
 Introduction
¨ “On the Origin of Species” was Darwin’s book
supporting that species had evolved

¨ Darwin also prepared an outline of his theory and

gave it to his wife to have published should he die
unexpectedly

¨ Darwin looked for flaws in his theory of evolution,

knowing this would be quite controversial
¨ Wallace, a young Biologist in Malaysia outlined his own
theory which was almost a perfect match to Darwins

¨ Wallace worked on his theory for days whereas Darwin

worked on his for over 20 years

¨ Darwin was convinced by his brothas (Lyell and Hooker)

to submit his theory

¨ Book was published “On the Origin of Species by

Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (it was sold out
on the first day)
The Theory of Evolution by Natural
Selection
¨ Darwin was confident that species evolved by a
process called natural selection

¨ Natural selection = the way the environment, or

nature, favours the reproductive success of certain
individuals over others

¨ Evolution was the result of natural selection

occurring over many generations
¨ His key observations were obvious: all healthy
populations produced far more offspring , individuals
thus exhibited heritable variability

¨ Herbert Spencer coined the phrase “survival of the

fittest” to describe natural selection

¨ The key to natural selection lies in the ability to favour

reproductive success

¨ Adaptation – feature of a species that allows it to be

well suited for survival or reproductive success in its
environment
Explanatory Power
¨ Darwin had quite a bit of evidence to support his
theory (i.e., biogeography, the fossil record, the
anatomical features of different species, and
artificial breeding)

¨ Critics questioned the source of variability in

characteristics of these species he studied

¨ How did a giraffe get a long neck if they were

originally born with a shorter neck?
¨ Darwin could not foresee the issues of mutations and the
discovery of DNA

¨ Darwin argued that if dogs could be so altered in a

few hundred years, why could nature not accomplish
even greater change in many more years

¨ Darwin also knew that to be scientific, a theory must

have the potential to be falsified – thus being testable

¨ Darwin knew that if evolution had not occurred, if

species had not changed over time, it would be easy to
find falsifying evidence
Homework
¨ Page 307 #1,2,5