1. Charles Darwin and Natural Selection

2. Darwin’s Ideas Influenced by:
Voyage on the Beagle ( )
Lamarck’s Theory of Evolution
Also influenced by…

3. Geologists James Hutton and Charles Lyell
Processes that form rock, mountains, and valleys are very slow
Earth is much more than a few thousand years old
Lyell
Geological processes we observe now have occurred for millions of years
Explains why marine fossils are at tops of mountains

4. Thomas Malthus, Economist
Babies born faster than people dying
If population growth continued, people would run out of food, water and space
War, famine and disease prevents this

5. Fossils

6. Artificial Selection
Breeders select best traits to produce next generation

7. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
Living things overproduce

8. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
There is variation among offspring

9. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
There is a struggle to survive

10. Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
Those that survive are most fit

11. Natural Selection: “Survival of the Fittest”
Fitness = ability to survive and reproduce
Fitness is the result of adaptations – inherited characteristics that increase an organism’s chance of survival

12. Descent with Modification
Over time, natural selection produces organisms with different structures
Today’s species look different from their ancestors
Each species descended with changes over time

13. Descent with Modification
Implies that all living things are related to one another
COMMON ANCESTOR