Explain How Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection Can Be Used To Explain How Evolution Has Occurred In Non-Human Animals

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Explain How Darwin's Theory Of Natural Selection Can Be Used To Explain How Evolution Has Occurred In Non-Human Animals

Darwin's theory of natural selection has provided us with the explanations of the processes involved in the changes of species over long periods of time. His theory was based on five major assumptions:

VARIATION: When Individuals within a species differ from one another in physical characteristics and in their behaviour.

HERITABILITY: Some of the variations amongst the members of species is inherited, meaning that the offspring tend to resemble their parents more than the other members of the species.

COMPETITION: Members of most species produce far more offspring than can survive. If there weren't problems with survival Darwin figured out that a pair of elephants could have about 19 million descendents alive 750 years after birth! However there are those who don't win competitions for best food and best place to live are the ones who are less likely to reproduce.

NATURAL SELECTION: Those who survive the competitions will then go on to breed and these tend to have the characteristics that are better suited to the environment than those who don't. Thus, there is natural