¶ … Evolution Is True
What Is Evolution?
This chapter highlights the six elements that make up evolution: 1) growth/evolution; 2) gradualism; 3) speciation; 4) shared origins; 5) natural selection; and 6) nonselective evolutionary change mechanisms (Coyne, 2009). Of these, the foremost is the evolution concept itself, which implies genetic modification of any given species with time. To elaborate, over a number of generations, species of animals may transform into a rather different animal because of DNA modifications whose origins lie in the mutation process within the body. The gradualism concept constitutes the second element of the theory of evolution. Over several generations, a significant evolutionary transformation occurs in the species (e.g., reptiles' transformation into birds). The subsequent elements may be considered two halves of one coin. It is an incredible and unbelievable fact that although innumerable living species exist, each and every one has a few common basic characteristics, including the biochemical routes utilized by all to generate energy, the standard 4-letter DNA codes and the way this is deciphered and converted into proteins within the body (Neuner, 2012).
The above fact is in line with my personal belief that all species can be traced back to one common ancestor, which possessed the aforementioned characteristics that were then inherited by its descendants. However, if the process of evolution only entailed slow genetic transformation in a species, the world would have had just a single, greatly-evolved species descended from the original species. The reality is different -- our world has more than 10 million existing species, while another 250,000 are now fossils. The life forms on earth are diverse, which raises the question of how diversity springs from a single ancestral form. The third evolutionary concept of speciation (splitting) helps answer this question (Neuner, 2012).
Coyne's vehement argument that evolution represents a true occurrence is correct. Every evidence collected since the time of Darwin clearly points to the fact that life forms on Earth evolve and every species is related to other species. The belief that evolution isn't true and has no impact on our species is an illogical one. But Darwinism and evolutionism are two different things, and it is at this point that Coyne's work is misleading. One must note that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was also an evolutionist, who came before Darwin's time. Further, Darwin was influenced by Lamarck, and believed in organ disuse and use. Biologists are expressing increasing discontent with the traditional Darwinism Coyne supported and Pinker, Dawkins, Dennett and other important Darwinian publicists incarnated. Experts increasingly accept that there is a need for a more pluralistic approach to evolution; this explains the emergence of Third Way evolution (Vecchi, 2009).
2. Written in the Rocks
Professor Jerry Coyne provides a clear rationale for the fossil record's absolute support of evolution and opposition to creationism, in spite of being essentially incomplete. Creationism proponents typically cite the argument of the missing link in the chain, asserting that the lack of transitional beings between plant and animal groups presents a challenge to the evolution argument. But Coyne disagrees; he claims paleontologists are constantly discovering transitional forms of which the most recent is the much publicized Ida flourished before huge crowds of people by New York's famous Natural History museum. Such fossils provide us with an idea of the assumed missing links' nature. Throughout Coyne's account are peppered references to different findings. For example, paleontologists have unearthed fossils to prove amphibians evolved from fish and birds from reptiles. In this chapter of the book, the professor also refutes another longstanding and commonly-cited argument against Darwin's theory of natural selection: that it fails account for biological innovations as this sort of explanation would necessitate proof of every intermediary phase's adaptive benefits. The naturalist supports Darwin's theory by tackling the typically utilized example of a bird's wings: how would one percent, twenty percent, or fifty percent of one/two wings prove beneficial to any animal? Coyne offers quite a hypothetical although convincing scenario, substantiated by startling fossil evidence from...
On Why Evolution is TrueIntroductionDarwin catapulted the theory of evolution to the main stage with his Origin of Species. In Why Evolution is True, Coyne (2009) takes a look at the theory of evolution and breaks it down from various perspectives to show why it has more explanatory power than the theory of Creationism. This review identifies the themes in Coyne�s (2009) book, discusses my own personal journey of discovery,
Natural selection is the very efficient and predictable means of evolution by which a species adapts to its environment, that results in evolutionary change as individuals with particular characteristics have a greater survival or reproductive rate than others in a population, and these genetic characteristics are then passed on to their offspring (Natural pp). In other words, natural selection is a consistent difference in survival and reproduction between different genotypes
Natural Selection First described in full by Charles Darwin, natural selection refers to the process by which organisms evolve by adapting to their environments. Natural selection does not occur instantly in response to an environmental change, however. Rather, natural selection occurs over the course of several successive generations. Those organisms that successfully survive the environmental changes due to their inherited traits will pass on their genes to their offspring. Thus, only
Evolution The book Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne presents a cogent case for evolution, a concept that can be controversial for some but accepted fact for others. This paper will work through the book -- the case that Coyne makes -- and offer reflections on my own journey of understanding the concept of evolution and its manifestation in the natural world. Understanding Evolution Evolution is not "fact," so much as a
evolution and natural selection is the addition of information. The process of evolution requires massive amounts of new information be added to an existing gene pool. What most people refer to as evolution is, in fact, natural selection. Natural selection occurs when genes that already exist in an animals' DNA, or sometimes on defective genes that have lost information (called mutation) are somehow altered. Neither process adds information to
Darwin's Finches And Natural Selection Polymorphism pertains to the existence of two distinctly different groups of a species that still belong to the same species. Alleles for these organisms over time are governed by the theory of natural selection, and over this time the genetic differences between groups in different environments soon become apparent, as in the case of industrial melanism." (Biology Online, 2000) Darwin's finches are an excellent examples of
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