Evolution Essay

Vanessa Hernandez

3^rd hr.

05/9/2011

Evolution

What is evolution?  Evolution is the process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.  In other words they say animals have changed over time and developed into the wonderful, interesting creatures we have today.  Also they say that us humans developed from primates which are monkeys.  I wouldn’t say we went through stages to become what we look like today I would say its more like evidence that we have found in which other creatures before us have had.  They have found a lot of similar features of us in fossils, the “stages” or “evidence” we have found is Paleocene, Eocene, Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene.

Just because we talk about evolution more and more everyday does not mean it has not been around for many years.  A man named Erasmus Darwin is the whole reason for this theory.  He was into nature his whole life and he was not going to stop at just dreaming of seeing the world, he made it happen.  Darwin got on a boat and went off to see the world and the different things that were in it.  He observed many creatures on islands, he observed the way they ate, how they changed over time, how they mated, how they found food,  the colors, what they looked like, and how they adapted to different environment changes.  He also observed the changes in the earth and how they formed into islands, mountains, and land.  Darwin went out and explored the world and made many theories.  

One theory he made was microevolution which is put into 4 mechanisms.  One mechanism is Mutation, which is very rare but it can happen.  One example of mutation is when all the beetles are green but then one beetles wings are half green and half brown.  The second theory is Migration. For example if there is one beetle in the group that is brown, that one will migrate and reproduce and make more brown beetles.  Once this happens the brown beetles will go up in population.  The third one is Genetic Drift, which is when the beetles reproduce then just by luck more brown genes ended up in the offspring.  The last one is Natural Selection, which is when beetles with brown genes escaped predation and survived to reproduce more frequently than beetles with green genes, so that more brown genes get into the next generation.  With  natural selection it also comes with artificial selection which is when the mate is chosen for them or the last resort, like in dog breeding, you get what you want.  These all go together in a chain most likely,  you can’t have one without the other.

Another theory he had was macroevolution.  Macroevolution is the history of life.  It has to do with every type of change or the stuff we do to survive.  For example back to the beetle, it does not just show the life of the beetle but it shows the things around it also.  It shows how the beetle survives and what it does to live.  Macroevolution refers to bigger things other than just one species.  This subject is connected to the theory of Microevolution.  This subject goes from mammals to plants it talks about the life cycles of all living things and how they have survived over hundreds and hundreds of years.  

Evolution has been around for hundreds of years and we are still figuring it out.  We are finding out more and more things over the years.  Darwin was a genius and started us off and now we will finish it and prove it.