Evolutionary Process According To Darwin’s Theory Of Evolution

We Are One Species Humans on earth today belong to one species, Homo sapiens, even though racial differences occur. Such phenotypic differences like skin color are most likely due to climate differences in the areas where each race arose. A review of the evidence for evolution leads to a consideration of Darwin’s proposed mechanism for the evolutionary process. Write a 1200 words essay explaining the evolutionary process according to Darwin’s Theory of evolution. Make use of the vocabulary and concepts learned during this course to explain the interaction between humans and their environments. Don’t forget to include an explanation for the population concerns such as; global diseases, population size, environ metal concerns and others.

Darwin's theory of evolution and natural selection

Evolution is a process by which changes in heritable character in population over the generations. This critical theory of biology postulates the changes in the every living thing from their ancestors (Kluger ;706). In century 19, the naturalist and biologist of England Charles Darwin first claimed that every organism exists in population evolved due to the process of evolution and come up with substantial pieces of evidence that explained by theory. Therefore, this essay focuses on theories proposed by Charles Darwin and evidence that support those theories. This essay will also illustrate the proofs of Darwin’s theory, the interaction between human and environment, population size, global diseases that concern human being and other environmental factors.

Darwin’s theory of evolution widely accepted worldwide explains that all organisms exist in the earth are related to each other by common ancestors. Over the time, all living organism diverged from ancestors due to changes in environments or genetic modifications. Charles Darwin proposed a mechanism behind by evolution named as ‘Natural selection’ that found in the book origin of species” (Seehausen et al.; 176). This theory explains that natural selection is a process of nature where only organisms those adapt best in natural environment tend to survive and transmits those specific adaptation traits to their next successive generations (Richards; 220). Over the time, those are unable to adapt to situation extinct over the period. Darwin proposed this theory by observing similar but non-identical species of finches on an island. This theory explains three crucial facts such as traits are often heritable from ancestors, Organism capable of producing offspring more than the environment can support, offspring differ in their genetical characters (Smith; 418). The prime source of the evolution was first discovered by palaeontologist that know n as ‘fossils’, which shows that many extinct organisms are very much different from any living being live in the earth (Bellwood et al.; 60). According to this fossils record, the First vertebrate with backbone appeared approximately 400million ago whereas the first mammal appeared less than 200 million ago (Wilson). It also shows the successful transition of one organism to another through adaptation. The perfect example of such adjustment is the long neck of a giraffe. On the other hand, due to lack of adaptation ,dinosaur extinct over the time. Molecular biology reveals that common genetic sequences are identical for all living things. One of the most prominent evidence that confirms every aspect of evolution is genetic material of organisms DNA. The amount of information of development that stored in DNA along with protein is virtually unlimited. Due to new technologies, it is possible for the scientist to decipher the genetic code that resides in DNA ( Massey ). It reveals that four simple bases arranged in a countless way to form the genetic codes of every living organism in the earth. This process of evolution also provided the scientist to understand the similarity of DNA between two related individual in species, which confirms that siblings have higher similarity in genetic material, which acquired from parents where cousins inherited half of DNA. Resemblance also found in non-identical species such as 146 amino acids found in a beta chain of hemoglobin, out of which 138 amino acids are identical to human where dogs have 114 amino acids nearly similar of human hemoglobin. This observation further proves that social share more genetic resemblance with common ancestors of rhesus monkey than dogs.

Proofs of Darwin's theory

The interaction between environment and human changed the direction of evolution, which confirms that even if heredity is a critical factor for successive transmission of adaptation traits, environment also manipulates the direction evolution. All features of the living organism that exists in the globe are solely depending on both heredity and environmental factors. Phenylketonuria (PKU) is one such example of the interaction between environment and genetic. In PKU, mental retardation observed in individuals due to toxin effect of the ill breakdown of amino acid phenylalanine by the defective enzyme. Therefore, a single gene controls the PKU (Jahja et al.).However, the expression of this gene depends on environmental factors that decide the development of PKU. Mutation is one of the raw materials of genetic variation. Every genetic feature that resides within individual results from mutation occurred by genes or environment. Most of the mutation that observed in creatures is a point or single gene mutation that leads to new genetic variation. Genetic drifts are also remarkable in influencing the population. Genetic drifts defined as the random fluctuation of genes that variable in population increases or decrease over a period (Lynch et al.; 710).It observed in a small population where the frequency of giving rise to allele is low. Therefore, either over time these rare allele lost or it exists as the only allele that resides in a particular locus in a population. Consequently, it hinders the chances of biodiversity. However, population size also massively changes the process of evolution. In the recent era, the current population of the world is 7,632,819,325, where the changes of numerical are unpredicted (Tricarico; 420 ). The exponential increase of population size is a prime concern in reserving natural sources and remarkable traits. High population size demands top resources for living quality life. Due to random enlargement of populations’ size, a significant amount of natural causes depleted which giving rise to struggle for resources in every layer of the food chain. Subsequently, creatures, those have excellent adaptation capabilities in environment where resources are depleting survive and receive additional advantages from nature due to few inherited genetic traits. Therefore, species evolved time to time by the interaction of environment and genes.

As the population continues to grow worldwide, every individual of food chain harassing the natural resources to fulfill their primary need. Few anthropogenic actions destabilize the economic balance of the earth. The consequences involve global climate changes, the frequency of occurring drought due to global warming. Apart from these environmental factors, few global diseases such as transmissible infectious disease and non-transmissible destabilize the genetic traits and economy of the globe. World health organization enlisted few deadly illnesses that significantly increase the death rate and decreases the chances of reserving unique genetic characters. The first deadly disease is ischemic heart injury where blood vessels that pump blood to the heart become narrowed.  Approximately, 8.8 million people died from this heart disease (Fihn et al.; 1930). The second deadly disease is stroke where deprivation of oxygen blocked the brain. Nearly, 6.2 million died from stroke every year (Kernan  et al.). Third deadly diseases are a lower respiratory disease such as influenza, pneumonia and tuberculosis that arises through Pathogenic microorganism where 3.2 million people died unexpectedly even after proper medication. A fourth deadly disease that destabilises the quality of life is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, which is progressive lung disease where breathing becomes difficult (Vogelmeier et al.; 560 ). Last most common condition that observed worldwide is diabetes that increases the morbidity level (Powers et al; 50). Therefore, over the decade deadly diseases significantly influence the journey of all living organism.

Hence, it can be concluded that the concept of evolution proposed by Darwin is the prime cause of differences in a unique genetic trait that acquired over the time. It is a unique process joins all the living being on the earth.  Over the time, according to natural selection, only those species survived who has additional advantages of nature. Therefore, to survive globe adaptation is the primary criteria for transmitting unique genes to offspring.

References:

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Kernan, Walter N., et al. "Guidelines for the prevention of stroke in patients with stroke and transient ischemic attack: a guideline for healthcare professionals from the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association." Stroke(2014): STR-0000000000000024.

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Mazur, Natalie I., et al. "Lower respiratory tract infection caused by respiratory syncytial virus: current management and new therapeutics." The Lancet Respiratory Medicine 3.11 (2015): 888-900.

Powers, Margaret A., et al. "Diabetes self-management education and support in type 2 diabetes: a joint position statement of the American Diabetes Association, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics." The Diabetes Educator43.1 (2017): 40-53.

Richards, Robert J. "Darwin’s theory of natural selection and its moral purpose." Debates in Nineteenth-Century European Philosophy: Essential Readings and Contemporary Responses (2016): 211-225.

Seehausen, Ole, et al. "Genomics and the origin of species." Nature Reviews Genetics 15.3 (2014): 176.

Smith, Eric Alden. Evolutionary ecology and human behavior. Routledge, 2017.

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Vogelmeier, Claus F., et al. "Global strategy for the diagnosis, management, and prevention of chronic obstructive lung disease 2017 report. GOLD executive summary." American journal of respiratory and critical care medicine 195.5 (2017): 557-582.

Wilson, Edward O. Half-earth: our planet's fight for life. WW Norton & Company, 2016.