THEORIES OF

EVOLUTION
By: Anewor L. Noretse
Jean-Babtiste Lamarck (1744-1829)
• Developed one of the first
theories on how species
changed.
• Concluded that organisms of
higher complexity had
evolved from pre-existing
less complex organisms
 THEORY OF NEED
LAMARCK’S
THEORIES
OF THEORY OF USE AND DISUSE
EVOLUTION
THEORY OF ACQUIRED
CHARACTERISTICS
• Organisms changed
because they need
to.

• For an organism to
evolve a structure, it
must need the
structure.
 THEORY OF NEED
WINGS CLAWS AND JAWS TRUNK
THEORY OF USE AND DISUSE
• If you don’t use it, you
lose it.
• Parts that are always
used become stronger
and well developed while
parts that are not used
become weaker and
eventually disappear.
THEORY OF ACQUIRED
CHARACTERISTICS
• If a parent acquires
a body structure
during its lifetime,
it could pass on the
characteristic
structure to its
offspring.
Disproving Lamarck’s theory

• Corsets

• Frequent exercise

• Tails of mice
(length)
CHARLES ROBERT DARWIN
• Proposed an entirely different
mechanism to account for the
evolution of species.
• His theory of evolution by
natural selection became the
foundation of modern
evolutionary studies.
 Theory of Natural Selection
• Organisms produce more
offspring that are able to
survive in their
environment. Those that
are better physically
equipped to survive, grow
to maturity, and
reproduce.
 Theory of Natural Selection
• Organisms that are more
adapted to their
environment are more
likely to survive and pass
on the genes that aided
their success.
• This process causes
species to change and
diverge over time.
NATURAL SELECTION “Survival of the fittest.”

• Individuals within
a population with
the MOST
FAVORABLE traits
for an environment
survive and pass
on those traits.
Main principles
to the theory of
Natural Selection
• Variation
•Overproduction
•Competition
•Adaptation
•Speciation/
selection
VARIATION
• No two individuals are the
same.
• Plants and animals of the
same species differ in
size, strength and
adaptive structures.
OVERPRODUCTION

• Organisms tend to
over reproduce.
• Greater chance of
survival
COMPETITION
• There is a struggle of
existence and the survival
of the fittest.
• Living space and food are
limited
ADAPTATION
A structure or
behavior that
helps an organism
survive in its
environment.
 Environment selects organisms
that survived to parents of
SELECTION succeeding generations.
SELECTION
Favorable adaptations
gradually accumulate in
the species and
unfavorable ones
disappear.
Overproduction and competition
Darwin vs. Lamarck