Thanks in advance. I come from a Christian school so they don’t teach evolution because they don’t believe it.
In: Biology
Wow, big topic.
So evolution is process by which changes in inheritable traits get passed on from generation to generation and those traits either spread or die out based on how beneficial those traits are.
Organisms all have traits that are coded in our genes. Our genes are essentially the “blueprint” for how to make a living being. All living beings pass on their genes to their offspring. Every time an organism reproduces, some genes are randomly different (called a mutation). Some of these genes can help the offspring survive, others can be harmful, and others might be neutral. Genes that help the offspring survive are more likely to be passed on because that organism will be more likely to live long enough to have offspring of its own. And so on and so forth.
So here’s an example. Let’s imagine an animal that eats leaves that grow on tall trees. Some of these animals will randomly have longer necks than others. The animals with the longer necks can reach more of the leaves, which means they get more leaves to eat. Eating more makes the animals more fit and healthier. Thus, they’re more likely to survive and have children. Those children will have inherited their parents genes for longer necks, and in turn, the ones that survive will pass on the long-necked genes to their offspring, and so on. Over many many *many* generations across millions of years, this passing along of traits led to an entire new species of organisms that branched off from their shorter-necked ancestors.
Some important things to note that people frequently misunderstand:
* Which mutations arise is *random.* Just because a trait *would* be useful doesn’t mean it will occur. In other words, evolution is not directed. It doesn’t have a purpose or a goal or a destination. Which mutations happen are random, and the beneficial or neutral ones stick around.
* Evolution doesn’t turn one species into another. In other words, it’s not a straight line, but rather branches from a common point, like branches on a tree. For example, humans did not evolve *from* modern apes, but rather modern apes and humans *branched* *apart* from a common ancestor species millions of years ago.
* Evolution is absolutely real and scientifically confirmed. We can watch it happen in real time with species that reproduce very quickly. It’s called a theory, but in science, a theory doesn’t mean a “guess” – in science, a theory is an explanation for some aspect of the world that is well-tested and proven by observation.
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