Tag: theories of evolution

Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection to explain the process of evolution which was published in the book entitled The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, 1859. Linnaeus is considered as the father of taxonomy and was first to use the binomial nomenclature for organisms in his book “Species Plantarum, 1753” in which he gave a generic name to each species. Philosophie Zoologique was published by Lamarck in 1809 in which he proposed his theory of evolution, Lamarckism.Thus, the correct answer is option A.

Charles Darwin came up with the idea of evolution of species with natural selection. Therefore, (c) is the correct answer.

Speciation is the term used for the development of new species by changes in population. Charles Darwin was the first to describe role of natural selection in speciation. Therefore, (b) is the correct answer.

Charles Darwin was born in year 1809. His bicentenary year was 2009.

British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace worked on a diversity of plants and animals of Malay Archipelago, reached at the same conclusion as Darwin. Wallace's book, "Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection", was published in 1870.

'Descent of man' was another publication by Darwin after he published 'Origin of species' in 1859.

Phyletic evolution actually refers to slow gradual evolution. It is a theory stating that, evolutionary change happens slowly, steadily and gradually in an attempt of the species to continue to adapt to changes in the environment, until they gradually become new species.

• Charles Darwin proposed the theory of natural selection. It emphasized that in a population, variations result based on different combinations of traits and the carrying capacity of the environment is limited. 
• Hence there cannot be a guarantee of breeding and reproduction probability. In such a situation nature selects the best-adapted organisms for survival with better traits than the other.  
• Such an organism will have a greater chance of becoming parents for the next generation because of its superior characters. 
• So there is a struggle among the organisms for existence in which only the fittest organism survives and others perish. This concept is called as the survival of the fittest. Thus the correct answer is option C. 

Darwin notes that there is greater variation observed in domesticated species than would be seen in the wild. Darwin admits that the laws governing inheritance are not yet fully understood, why some traits might skip generations while others only appear in one sex or the other. He reviews a number of domesticated species, in particular various breeds of dogs where it remains unclear if they derive from a single parent species or several. After the different types of animals he has focused his study on domestic pigeons. So, the correct answer is "Breeding domesticated animals".

Darwin in his old ages returned to earthworms and wrote a book which described the volume of soil that earthworms swallow and eject as castings. He reported that an acre of land may contain about 50,000 earthworms and yield 18 tons of castings per year. So, the correct answer is 'About 50,000 earthworms'.