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Darwin, Wallace and natural selection

Inheritance, variation and evolution • The development of understanding of genetics and evolution

Key concepts

What you'll likely be quizzed about

  • Natural selection is the process by which individuals with traits better suited to an environment survive and reproduce successfully, passing those traits to their offspring.
  • Key steps include: (1) Variation exists within a population.
  • (2) More offspring are born than can survive, leading to competition.
  • (3) Individuals with advantageous variations survive and reproduce.
  • (4) Over generations, advantageous traits increase in frequency, potentially resulting in new species.

Flashcards

Test your knowledge with interactive flashcards

How do Darwin’s finches illustrate natural selection?

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Finches show variation in beak shape matched to different food sources; birds with beaks suited to local food survive and reproduce, causing divergence between island populations over generations.

Key notes

Important points to keep in mind

Natural selection requires variation, differential survival and reproduction, and heritability.

Artificial selection demonstrates how selective breeding can swiftly change traits, illustrating human-driven selection.

Wallace independently formulates natural selection and provides crucial biogeographical evidence, exemplified by the Wallace Line.

Acceptance of Darwin’s theories is delayed because inheritance mechanisms remain unclear until later genetics research.

Public debates and religious objections create social resistance even when scientific arguments are robust.

Predictions leading to discoveries, such as Darwin’s moth prediction, serve as strong tests of theory.

Speciation often follows geographical isolation and diverse selection pressures in separated populations.

Multiple independent lines of evidence-fossils, biogeography, comparative anatomy, and genetics-support evolution through natural selection.

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