Is evolution correct

Answer 1

The theory of evolution states that most living organisms share common ancestry. Charles Darwin proposed this theory 150 years ago to account for the remarkable diversity of life around the globe, and to explain apparent successions of fossils.

Since Darwin's time the theory of evolution has been modified to incorporate discoveries in genetics. We now know the source of the mutations that create change, for example. We have also learned a great deal about earlier stages of life. Multicellular organisms clearly originated in a marine environment. We have fossils of fish that predate any fossils of land plants or animals. Given that fact, evolution would predict the earliest terrestrial vertebrates should be amphibians.

It turns out this is what we find. Fossils of amphibious creatures like ichthyostega, eusthenopteron, acanthostega, and eogyrinus all bear remarkable resemblance to sarcopterygian lungfish of that era. One telling find was discovered by paleonotologists who predicted (on the basis of evolutionary theory) that there should be a creature with particular features in specific strata. When they searched that strata they found Tiktaalik roseae.

There are hundreds of scholarly papers published in peer reviewed journals on the subject of biological evolution each and every year, and this has been the case for decades. Research into this subject is ongoing and pervasive--it is of keen interest in numerous prestigious universities around the world. Essentially no research has been conducted that casts any serious or substantial doubt on the accuracy of Darwin's theory. On that basis I am led to the conclusion the theory is essentially correct.