0
Evolution
The scientific theory according to which populations change gradually through a process of natural selection.
5,264 Questions
What is the Out of Africa theory of human evolution?
It is the theory that the origins of our human species were located in the Rift Valley of east Africa, and that humans first began to make their way (migration) out of Africa approximately 100,000 years ago. As such, all of our ancestors were originally from Africa.
The first migration was to the Middle East, then slowly beyond. The last areas to be populated by humans were North and South America, with the first humans having trekked across the "land bridge" during the last Ice Age, about 11,000 to 15,000 years ago.
What are similarities between Darwins theory and Lamarcks theory of evolution?
similarities:
1. Both made many similar observations
2. Both observed a wide diversity of life forms that are adopted to their environment
3. Both proposed that species evolve
-Traits are passed to offspring.
-Driven by environment.
-Both proposed evolution with gradual change.
Why can a population evolve but an individual can not?
Evolution and natural selection is a long process covering many hundreds, thousands, even millions of generations. It is based upon random mutations that occur in the offspring of organisms. In other words, almost by definition, the evolutionary process cannot take place in an individual insofar as the individual represents only one generation. If the individual has experienced some sort of random mutation that affords it some sort of advantage over its un-mutated peers in its environment, then perhaps it will be more likely to procreate and pass on its genes to its offspring who, in turn, will benefit from the advantages the mutation has created and procreate more successfully. This process can lead to an overall improvement of the species or an entirely new species altogether.
Does geological evidence support Darwin's theory?
In general, yes. The basic process of "evolution", in which each generation of creatures either survive or do not, in response to environmental factors, is pretty much undisputed. The creatures that survive more often are likely to prosper and thrive; the ones that survive LESS often (no process is absolute) will gradually become extinct.
So in the geological record, we see evidence of animals and plants that are similar to the ones we know today, some that are somewhat different, and many that are WILDLY different than any we know of today. So in my front yard, I have a ginko tree which is apparently no different from the ones that apatosaurus might have eaten 100 million years ago, while there have been no dinosaurs around for about 65 million years. The shellfish in the market of Catania, Sicily, are essentially the same as the fossil shellfish that have been excavated from the million-year-old lava flows around Mt. Etna.
We cannot know for certain what combinations of factors might have encouraged some species to thrive while others became extinct, but the basic process of evolutionary change is essentially undisputed.
Certainly, Darwin's theories were not 100% accurate - but scientific theories never are. They are always revised as we learn new facts and are able to better interpret old facts into a coherent whole.
What did Jean-Baptiste de Lamarack contribute to the theory of evolution?
Lamarck proposed that organisms change over time based on needs through "use and disuse". He believed in inheritance of acquired characteristics. Though this is an inaccurate idea, Lamarck was ahead of his time in that he understood adaptation was key to evolution in some way.
Darwin died in Down, Kent, on April 19, 1882. It has been theorised that Charles Darwin committed suicide soon after the death of his brother. He was a troubled man leading up to his death but admitted no connection of any sickness related to his death.
Explain why individuals cannot evolve?
Individuals die. Only the progeny of individuals carry on the genetic variation that is in populations. Selection works on this variation in populations by working on variation passed along by the sex cells. Somatic cells of the individual can have any mutation, but can not pass it on to progeny. Sex cell, having mutation which allow selection to choose among variation, lead to evolutionary processes.
What are the Lamarck's 3 theories?
Do Lamarck's theories provide a good explanation for the change in months? Why or why not?
What year did the theory of evolution become prominent?
In 1859, when Charles Darwin published his book "On the Origins of Species by Means of Natural Selection and the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life." Before Darwin (along with Alfred Russell Wallace) announced the idea of natural selection, scientists knew that evolution may exist, but they didn't know how it worked. In 1959, Zinj, a fossil skull of Paranthropus Boisei, was found in Olduvai Gorge by Mary Leaky. Zinj was a bipedal primate-like form with seemed to fit the missing link between humans and primates. Because of this, evolution was then given widespread attention from the non-scientist population
Why the evolution of computers?
from about.com
Computer History
Year/EnterComputer History
Inventors/InventionsComputer History
Description of Event1936Konrad Zuse - Z1 ComputerFirst freely programmable computer.1942John Atanasoff & Clifford Berry
ABC ComputerWho was first in the computing biz is not always as easy as ABC.1944Howard Aiken & Grace Hopper
Harvard Mark I ComputerThe Harvard Mark 1 computer.1946John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly
ENIAC 1 Computer20,000 vacuum tubes later...1948Frederic Williams & Tom Kilburn
Manchester Baby Computer & The Williams TubeBaby and the Williams Tube turn on the memories.1947/48John Bardeen, Walter Brattain & Wiliam Shockley
The TransistorNo, a transistor is not a computer, but this invention greatly affected the history of computers.1951John Presper Eckert & John W. Mauchly
UNIVAC ComputerFirst commercial computer & able to pick presidential winners.1953International Business Machines
IBM 701 EDPM ComputerIBM enters into 'The History of Computers'.1954John Backus & IBM
FORTRAN Computer Programming LanguageThe first successful high level programming language.
1955
(In Use 1959)Stanford Research Institute, Bank of America, and General Electric
ERMA and MICRThe first bank industry computer - also MICR (magnetic ink character recognition) for reading checks.1958Jack Kilby & Robert Noyce
The Integrated CircuitOtherwise known as 'The Chip'1962Steve Russell & MIT
Spacewar Computer GameThe first computer game invented.1964Douglas Engelbart
Computer Mouse & WindowsNicknamed the mouse because the tail came out the end.1969ARPAnetThe original Internet.1970Intel 1103 Computer MemoryThe world's first available dynamic RAM chip.1971Faggin, Hoff & Mazor
Intel 4004 Computer MicroprocessorThe first microprocessor.1971Alan Shugart &IBM
The "Floppy" DiskNicknamed the "Floppy" for its flexibility.1973Robert Metcalfe & Xerox
The Ethernet Computer NetworkingNetworking.1974/75Scelbi & Mark-8 Altair & IBM 5100 ComputersThe first consumer computers.1976/77Apple I, II & TRS-80 & Commodore Pet ComputersMore first consumer computers.1978Dan Bricklin & Bob Frankston
VisiCalc Spreadsheet SoftwareAny product that pays for itself in two weeks is a surefire winner.1979Seymour Rubenstein & Rob Barnaby
WordStar SoftwareWord Processors.1981IBM
The IBM PC - Home ComputerFrom an "Acorn" grows a personal computer revolution1981Microsoft
MS-DOS Computer Operating SystemFrom "Quick And Dirty" comes the operating system of the century.1983Apple Lisa ComputerThe first home computer with a GUI, graphical user interface.1984Apple Macintosh ComputerThe more affordable home computer with a GUI.1985Microsoft WindowsMicrosoft begins the friendly war with Apple.
When did Charles Darwin formulated his evolution theory?
Charles Darwin formulated his theory of evolution by natural selection in the mid-19th century, and it was published in his book "On the Origin of Species" in 1859. His theory revolutionized our understanding of the diversity of life on Earth.
this is the oldest theory of how the state originated and was almost universally accepted in ancient and medieval times. it asserts that state is of divine origin for all political authority emanates from God. The ruler derives his power from god and god's agent on earth, he must be obeyed by the people in early modern times, this theory came to be known as the "divine right of kings."
How did the Scopes Trial illustrate the urban-rural split in the 1920s?
The Scopes Trial represented a clash between rural fundamentalism and urban modernism. -NOVANET
Which system used to classify organisms has changed over time?
The system used to classify organisms that has changed over time is the taxonomic classification system. This system groups organisms based on their shared characteristics and evolutionary relationships. As scientific knowledge has advanced and new evidence has been discovered, the classification of certain organisms has been revised to better reflect their genetic, anatomical, and ecological relationships.
What are Lamarcks's contributions to evolution?
Two pertinent ideas of Lamarck were the idea of acquired characteristics and the concept of use and disuse.
Acquired characteristics posited that some experience that an organisms went through in life, such as muscle building due to hard work, would be heritable.
Use and disuse posited that certain organs and traits could develop through use, such as the giraffe trying to eat the leaves on the heights of trees, or that organs or traits could be lost through disuse.
What is the chance of two white people having a black baby?
it depends on whether the parents have a black parents
to have a black baby both parents must have a black parent to posses the gene to create the black baby, even so, if both parents are white it means that the "black" gene is recessive (doesn't affect there skin colour but still carry the gene), when both parents have this recessive gene it means that there a 1/4 chance of the baby being black
I'm not sure if this is the exact chance but in theory it should lie around 1/4
What will humans look like 1000 years from now?
Most likely, we won't change much. Evolution takes place slowly so that in order to see any sort of difference you would need at least a few hundred thousand to a few million years. So, 1000 years is merely a blink of an eye in evolutionary terms.
Answer
People will probably have developed skin better equipped for the hole in the ozone layer. Maybe we will be living underwater... or on the moon or mars! But what is for sure, we will probably be different because the world is Constantly changing and so must we to adapt to the surroundings... do you get my drift???
Did humans evolve from a star?
No. Humans are not made from stars. However, every element in the human body except hydrogen and perhaps lithium came from an exploding star. The human body contains carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, chlorine, sulphur, and a number of other elements, all made in stars. All became available for other uses when the stars exploded.
What is evolution and who was famously assosiated with it?
In the context of the natural world, evolution is the gradual genetic change that occurs within a species, eventually resulting in the development of one or more new species. We can say that species that do not evolve eventually become extinct, as they become unable to survive changes in their environment.
Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet (1744-1829) was an early advocate of evolution and believed that it proceeded in accordance with natural laws.
Another early pioneer of evolutionary studies was Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who as early as 1795 stated that what we call species are various degenerations of the same type.
Lamarck was the first naturalist whose conclusions received much attention. He first published his views in 1801, saying that species, including man, are descended from other species.
In 1859, Charles Darwin published the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection in The Origin of Species, as an explanation of the process by which evolution occurs.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT:
Evolution takes thousands to millions to billions of years (example: bacteria-to-man took 3.7 billion years). Cutting off a mouse's tail for a few generations does not prove or disprove evolution. Whether internal organs or exterior necks, it is all needed or not needed evolutionary continuance. Our little toes are getting smaller because we wear shoes now and the foot is not put to as much strain to need the wider five toes. Our little finger is getting smaller because we do not do as much manual labor and do not need/use it as much as before - but it takes tens of thousands of generations to completely change - we are ever-changing, and you can't see it that fast - but it's there...and you are here because of it. Jeff Vincent, CML, MA
The body is a wondrous thing. You have over 2,000 sebaceous glands in each ear canal alone, just to produce ear wax that not only lubricates the ear drum to keep it pliable and sensitive to sound, but the only Homo sapiens to survive were the ones that secretes a type of ear wax that acts as a bug repellent to keep critters from crawling into your ear while you sleep and get into your brain. You sneeze at almost 100 MPH to clean out the nose of impurities. You produce 1.5 gallons of tears per year to clean and wash your eyes with sugar, salt, ammonia, water, albumin, citric acid, lysozynme, and urea as disinfectant (as in urine); this special combination keeps your eyes clean, clear, self-repairing small tears, and the urea keeps bacteria out of your brain as well. You burp (called an eructation) in order to reduce air from getting into your intestinal tract. You hiccup because of air near the diaphragm and the body is trying to shift it away. You pass gas, Ch4, with is the flatulence of billions of Bactria in your intestines that are breaking down your food into vitamins that can be absorbed through the wall into your blood stream. Your XX & XY sexual creation is the same in fruit flies and ginkgo biloba trees, so say hi to your cousins!
You want the lottery? The estrogen or testerone that bathes you when you are only a few dozen cells old, is either (E) C18H24O2 or (T) C19H28O2 and that chemical bath tells all the other cells that divide after it that you are a boy or girl, forever. Count up the atoms in both hormones - you are only a male or female by a five atom difference at that point in your nanoscopic life!
Our earth has evolved with its own special tricks. We used to rotate at almost 4,000 miles per hour, making a four-hour day. Now that our moon is drifting away from us (a little under 2 inches per year), our tides are slowing and as the moon drifts away we slow down. In another 3 billion years it will completely drift away, making our 23.5 degree earth axis (that makes our seasons), go to 45 degrees and a wobble that will kill all of us. But we are supposed to collide with Andromeda 2.5 billion years from now, so who cares about the moon?! Our earth is down to a spin of 1,037.5646 miles per hour at the equator, and zero at the poles, as we head for Leo the Lion at over 1,200,000 MPH. And the fact that our yellow-dwarf G-2 star will start to burn out and expand almost to earth, frying us to esssse (human ashes) doesn't matter at all.
I realize that this has little to do with evolution, but it does in the long run. We were in the Sagittarius Arm of the Milky Way 4 billion years ago when a small planetoid hit us and threw out the still-molten globular material that is now our Pacific Ocean, and some of it settled into an orbit around us, our moon. That is why it has no iron core, just basalt, which is at the bottom of all oceans. That is why the Pacific Rim has so many active volcanoes, our moon was ripped from it and it has never sealed itself completely. Hawaii sits at the middle of the pacific and is the epicenter of that long-ago removal, kind of like when you see a drop of water hit water in slow motion, and a tail comes up in the middle. This upheaval also made such a gap in our planet that our Pangaea (one continent on earth) has been slowing shifting to compensate for it ever since, now up to 7 continents.
What we now call the Hawaiian area was so fragmented that lava just kept coming up and it finally rose to the surface and became a state! During this upheaval, our solar system drifted through and out of the Sagittarius Arm, and with little blockage of debris at that point, we were exposed to massive amounts of radiation, thus the Cambrian Era of growth, and massive amounts of life, both plant and animal began to evolve much faster than normal. Finally, there was so much pant life that our oxygen levels were at 33% (now at 21%), and animals grew very large back then (dinosaurs are but one example). The earth started to recede in oxygen as we entered the Orion Arm (technically the Orion Spur), and with the comet or asteroid that hit us 65 million years ago (a meteorite once it touched earth) all large plants and animals had a very difficult time living.
Our human ancestor, the tree shrew, 70,000,000 years ago, has been proven to be our earliest mammalian relative by DNA (DNA findings now accepted in all courts), so we are stuck with a little tree rat being our beginnings. Oh well, let them come through the Eons and be called primates. We split off 27,000,000 years ago, and through a shifting of the earth's axis and the droughts caused by it, we were forced to go North and seek out better living conditions. Our skin lightened, our peni shortened, as it was no longer used as a naked selection of virility by the female, and we started to gather grains, which saturated our blood and created a new blood type (A) some 12,000 years ago, then vegetables were grown in large amounts, creating a different blood type again (B), and last, fruit was finally mass produced in orchards in Rome and Greece, quickly spreading and yet another blood type came about (AB). the original blood type O that had a hibernation gene in it was not as prevalent then and not so many later struggled with weight problems as most O's do today.
With the tilting of our axis, causing ice age after ice age, and only the smartest surviving, we become what we are today. We call it global warming, but it's really just coming out of, or going back into another ice age; heating up and thawing out; it made up what we are today.
Evolution is everything that you are today, from that Neandathral that mated with a Homo habilis, to a Homo erectus getting a little friendly with a Homo Sapien - you are ALL Mankind as you read this today, no matter the religion, belief, or lack there of - you are me and I am you, all within 60 generations of each other within your own race.... That little tree-like shrew is now sapient, but stupid enough to ruin ourselves with pollution....
We know that our bodies are 100% from used atoms from another form of life, passed on through the Eons and back again. It took 3.7 billion years to go from algae to Man, but now it only takes one year to go from a whale, to a Japanese whaler, to canned meat, consumed by a person, defecated out and used as fertilizer (popular business in Asia), that fertilizer absorbed into a plant, that plant is eaten by us or another animal and we eat the animal, all within one year, we ARE used atoms from all of our past. Even the granite and calcium of our past, it is us.
Evolution had indeed changed us, and before it's all over, we will be 'finalized' when we are drawn into Sagittarius A*, a Black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. But don't worry, it's sill 152,843,933,923,200,000 miles away - you can still go out for dinner and a movie. Bye - Jeff Vincent, CML, MA ffc.jcv@att.net
Is there scientific evidence that Adam and Eve were the first humans?
There is no scientific evidence to support the story of Adam and Eve as being the first humans. The theory of evolution, supported by vast evidence from multiple scientific disciplines, indicates that humans evolved over millions of years from ape-like ancestors. The story of Adam and Eve is generally regarded as a religious myth rather than a historical account.
Why did cavemen turn into humans?
So-called "cavemen" were already human, hence the now outdated term "Cro-Magnon" (The Big Cave). These people lived in caves during the Upper Paleothic period in Europe around 45,000 years ago.
What are five factors that influence evolution?
Factors that are relevant to natural selection are survival and reproduction.
Factors that might influence natural selection are limitless and could be anything from endurance to immune function, metabolism, speed, strength, sharpness of teeth, insulation from the cold etc etc.
Also there is overproduction of young, variation, competition, and environmental factors.
Specific five factors:- Gene flow - individuals immigrating and emigrating change allele frequencies in a population.
- Genetic drift - by pure chance, a current population produces a new, smaller population with less variation.
- Mutation - a new, favorable allele will increase in frequency in a population over generations.
- Natural selection - traits impoving survival rate (also improving reproduction rate) will increase in frequency.
- Sexual selection - traits improving mating success will also increase in frequency.
Darwin's theory of evolution developed by watching birds; he noticed that two variations of the same bird had developed, each with a specifically developed beak for opening the different types of nuts (one type of nut was found on one side of the island while the other was on the other side of the island). This showed that over time, the birds with better beaks for cracking open their particular food source were more likely to survive and pass on the gene for this "better" beak. Over time (after many, many, MANY generations) the birds evolved until the one bird became two, due to their different food sources. Evolution is a "fine-tuning" of the species. It is constantly happening, sometimes occurring simply over a long period of time OR it can happen as a result of a mutation that turns out to be beneficial.
How do scientific names of organisms get decided?
Scientific names are determined using a system called binomial nomenclature created by Carl Linnaeus. The name consists of a genus and a species name, with the genus capitalized and both words italicized. The names are usually descriptive, based on the organism's characteristics, habitat, or the scientist who discovered them.
