Biology Project

Charles Darwin and Natural Selection

Done by:- Nina Achu Abraham
Class:- 8 IG
 Charles Darwin was born in England in 1809. He enjoyed studying biology and geology,
and in 1831, he got the opportunity to serve as a naturalist on a trip around the world on
the H.M.S. Beagle. During this five year voyage, Darwin collected thousands of plants and
animals from South America and the Galapagos Islands. He took lots of notes and made

Charles
lots of observations about the organisms and landscapes he saw.

Darwin and It is often thought that Charles Darwin came up with the theory of evolution, but this is not
true. Evolution is change over time in populations, and this idea was around before
Darwin. Darwin actually never even used the term evolution in his publications. Instead, he
used descent with modification, which can be used interchangeably with evolution. One

Evolution
important thing to remember about evolution is that populations (groups of individuals of
the same species) evolve, but individuals do not evolve.

Darwin's main contribution to science was that he explained a mechanism, or a way, for
evolution to occur. This mechanism is called natural selection, which is a process in
which individuals that are well suited to their environment will survive and reproduce
better than other individuals. In 1859, Darwin published On the Origin of Species, in which
he explained in detail his observations and theory of evolution by natural selection. The
full title of this book is much more descriptive: On the Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.
 Let's examine natural selection in more detail. Darwin's
theory of evolution by natural selection includes four
important observations of nature:
Theory of Members of a population of the same species vary in

Evolution by their traits.

Natural Traits can be inherited, or passed from parents to

offspring.

Selection Populations are capable of producing more offspring

than the environment can support.

Due to a lack of food or other resources, many of the

offspring do not survive.
Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
Natural selection will only occur if all four of these
observations are true for a population.
This is a population of moths. They are all the same
species, but they vary. Some are brown, and some are
gray. Color is a trait that can be inherited. In this
example, brown moths produce brown offspring. Gray
moths produce gray offspring. Each parent produces
many offspring, but only a few of them will survive.
This unequal ability of individuals to survive and
reproduce, or differential survival and reproduction,
will lead to the accumulation of favorable traits in the
population over many generations.
Individuals whose inherited traits give them a higher
From his four observations, Darwin made two chance of surviving and reproducing in their
inferences to explain natural selection: environment tend to leave more offspring than other
individuals.
Let us say that this moth population mostly lives on
brown trees. This means that the brown moths will
blend in and be hard for predators, like birds, to see.
Gray moths stand out and will easily be eaten. So
brown moths have a better chance of surviving than
gray moths. Because the brown moths survive longer
than the gray ones, they will have a better chance of
reproducing. So over time, if only the brown moths
reproduce, then the population will consist of only
brown moths.
Natural Selection
• The Theory of Evolution by natural selection was first
formulated in Charles Darwin's book "On the Origin of
Species" published in 1859. ... According to the theory,
individuals with traits that enable them to adapt to their
environments will help them survive and have more
offspring, which will inherit those traits.
What are the 5
main points of
Darwin's theory?
• The five theories were:
• (1) evolution as such,
• (2) common descent,
• (3) gradualism
• (4) multiplication of species,
• (5) natural selection.
Define Evolution
• Evolution means that species of organisms and population change with time. As we
know that Darwin wrote a book Origin of Species. In it, he told that species evolved and
all living things can trace their descent to a common ancestor. He also suggested a
mechanism for evolution and that is natural selection. In this method heritable traits that
help organisms to survive and reproduce become more common in a population over
time.
This picture shows the natural selection of
Finches
Natural Selection vs Artificial Selection