Evolutionary history of life

Often times, when we hear the term, “survival of the fittest,” we associate it with animals and how they have taken advantage of their evolutionary timeline. Even though the term might imply that the animal most “fit” would be more likely to survive, it is not in the sense of how physically fit they are. According to Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” But in the world of science fiction, would we consider change in regards to the conditions of planet Earth, or another planet such as Mars? Or perhaps the change would be in regards to the surrounding conditions of a space ship going at speed of light? The main question to ask would be if survival…

Photosynthesis and sexual reproduction are the two main turning points in the history of life, because the ability to process energy from sunlight, random variation and non-random selection allowed for evolutionary growth and the survival of life. Photosynthesis, an important process of energy transformation is crucial in the development of metabolic microorganisms, as well as the evolutionary changes from primitive to more complex life. Sexual reproduction displays a significant evolutionary…

Around 543 million years ago the Cambrian Explosion occurred, some say it may represent the most important evolutionary event in the history of life on Earth. The “Cambrian Explosion” refers to the rapid appearance of most major living animal body plans in the fossil record within 20 million years or less. This may seem to be a long period of time but is a relatively short in evolutionary history. This swift change in the fossil record appears to be inconsistent with the ideal of the slow…

had been the predominant path of evolutionary thought for decades. Adaptationists see natural selection as the only and all-powerful force that can overcome any constraint to species' traits, and that evolution in turn relies exclusively on natural selection. In challenging this concept of adaptation, Gould and Lewontin are not denying the existence evolution by natural selection, but are interested in generating alternatives and other explanatory factors that are dismissed as unimportant or…

In the article, Evolutionary Creation: Beyond the Evolution vs. Creation Debate, the author, Denis Lamoureux, explains the term “evolutionary creation”. This term is used to describe a collection of Christians who embrace both ideas of creation and evolution. Traditionally, creation is used by faithful Christians to describe the origins of the universe and reject the notion by scientists that the universe and life are products of evolution. The views of evolutionary creationists are sometimes…

produced the galaxies, the sun, the earth, and even human life. The cosmic evolutions’ goal is to frame cosmic heritage. With this one can understand the environment that was needed for matter to become organized, ordered, and structured. Cosmic evolution is ultimately the source from where people get the big bang theory. Overall, cosmic evolution is the study of many changes on a universal…

is most dependent on modern thought is the many influences of Charles Darwin himself; Charles Darwin is known for his many diverse accomplishments. In fact, his thoughts and ideas were so diverse that his accomplishments were divided up into three fields to which he made major contributions to. These three fields consist of the philosophy of science, evolutionary biology, and the modern zeitgeist. Charles Darwin…

Since Charles Darwin created the theory of evolution, scientists have provided numerous examples, through science, that proves the validity and accuracy of the theory of evolution. One of the most popular species Charles Darwin studied was the Galapagos finches. In an article that talks about them, I have read that those finches are an excellent candidate for studying evolution, as they are a great example evolutionary diversification and a rapid increase in the diverse species. The same article…

The study of Anthropology has proven to be flexible in the way in which cultures are studied. From when the study first began to the 20th century, many different ways of viewing culture have been documented, and many of those ways have been refuted. Our analyses of different anthropologists starts with Tylor a 19th century evolutionary anthropologist and ends with Malinowski a 20th century functional anthropologist. What falls between them are Boas and his student Kroeber. All four of them have…

Investigating human social life in world history can provide a very detailed description of the ‘average world person’. The term, ‘average world person’ is quite abstract. For example, the average world person is the usual member of an ordinary human society shown in any given historical era. As shown in Alderson and Sanderon’s book (2005, p. 243), three examples throughout human society can illustrate a general idea of the average world person. The first example, 15,000 years ago, the average…