The Study of Living Organisms

“Charles Darwin, a 19th century biologists discovered fascinating evidence in a comparative study of living organisms, geographic distribution, and the remains of extinct organisms in the form of fossils”(Britannica). Darwin created a theory of evolution stating that every organism is slightly different heirs, some gaining advantaging traits others gaining traits that give disadvantages(BBC Earth). Since Darwin’s time new ways of testing evolution have become apparent like in the study of genetics and biochemistry (Britannica). August Weismann, a German theorist of the 19th century came up with the following theorem after believed to read one of Darwin’s contemporaries notes,“…when one or more individuals have provided a sufficient number of successors they themselves, as consumers of nourishment in a constantly increasing degree, are an injury to those successors.

Natural selection therefore weeds them out, and in many cases favours such races as die almost immediately after they have left successors.” (longevity-science.org) This theory brings up the idea that an organism may only make a certain amount of offsprings, meaning for a scientist to test evolution they must breed the maximum capacity of offsprings in different environments to receive the most diverse litter or group and continue this process until an offspring is different in any way from the original heir.

(August Weismann theorem longevity-science.org) An adaptation and evolution are similar because, the broad term evolution just refers to a change over time.

But, to be more specific an adaptation is one organism adjusting to their environment while an evolution is referred to a development of a feature to better help the animal survive(Daily Ritual).

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Also an adaptation is usually connected to suiting and organism for their environment.(Quora) There are different types of adaptations; behavioral either learned or instinctive, structural and, physiological each one of these contributes to evolution except, learned behaviors.

Learned behaviors aren’t considered to be part of evolution because learned behaviors are taught from a parent or other animal while instinctive is still considered an evolutionary adaptation because the instinct is based on the animal’s environment. Take a Monarch Butterfly migrating to Mexico every year that’s a learned behavior while if the climate changed, the Butterfly would have the instinct to change the migration path therefore an evolutionary adaptation takes place. Humans and the Earth are the prime example for a relationship between evolution and adaptations. The Earth is constantly evolving if the change is manmade or naturally, and while the Earth is evolving us humans are constantly adapting to the changes(Difference Between).

Diseases have been more apparent throughout history because of our immune systems adapting to these diseases and overcoming these, this is an example of humans adapting to real world problems(BusinessInsider.com).

There are a couple of factors to state prior, all connecting to Darwin’s theory of natural selection, that animals with a higher population tend to have more individuality. Also, Inherited characteristics are more popular in an offspring, so with these facts in hand a scientist can contemplate that the way to improve the rate at which evolution occurs seems pretty simple.

For a scientist to improve the rate of evolution the scientist would take an animal with a short lifespan that reproduces quickly and take one of those animals different in any way that benefits the survival of an animal and reproduce that animal with selective breeding. With further inbreeding of that one animal the characteristic of the first animal would start becoming more apparent in the offsprings and eventually that characteristic may start becoming bigger or smaller in different circumstances.

Another way is for a mutation to occur while an environment to be in the midst of changing.(ncbi.nlm.nih.gov) “Cells are able to adapt to stress not by knowing exactly what they need to do, but by throwing the dice as a population and making random changes to the genome,” said James Broach, a biologist at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Medicine in Hershey(Wired). James Broach basically stated that under states of pressure a cell may randomly change one thing in a genome which is relating to how to speed up evolution because, if an animal is put under pressure based on this theory the animals cells will change signifying an evolution.

A group of scientist currently are working on a evolution assisted coral breed to adapt to climate change. What their goal is, is to cross breed species that recently survived coral bleaching events to create a new species of white coral that can survive these events and reproduce. It’s one example of so-called assisted evolution–an attempt to help species adapt to a changing environment more quickly than they are likely to through natural selection(Fast company)

Fossils are the preserved remains of organisms from the past(LumenLearning). Evidence of evolution comes from fossils, by studying fossils scientist can determine how much or little an organism has changed as the environment around the organism alternated(BBC bitesize). But, only partial parts of the organisms (Bones,Exoskeletons and trace fossils) are preserved(LumenLearning).

Another way for evolution to be present is in homologous structures or species sharing similar physical features because that same feature was present in a common ancestor(khan Academy). Natural selection also plays a part in a homologous structures. In this way two seperate groups of the same species may live in two vastly different environments allowing the groups of the species who adapted to survive creating a homologous structure not exactly the same but still share a common physical feature(yahoo answers).

Molecular biology also could provide evidence to evolution, with research about dna and genetic code scientist could compare the dna of one organism to another to search for a similarity(Khan Academy). With research done by Daniel J. Fairbanks, by studying human dna could pinpoint the area where human life originated.(eurekalert.org)

Most empirical and theoretical studies have shown that sex increases the rate of evolution. Although, evidence of sex constraining genomic and epigenetic variation and slowing down evolution also exists(.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). Also slower rates of sex have been seen to removal of major genetic rearrangements, the cost of finding a mate, vulnerability to predation, and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases.(.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

In the present theoretical study the scientists show that a faster evolutionary rate can decrease the abundance of newly formed species and thus decrease long-term biodiversity. This leads to the result that sexual reproduction can increase genetic variation but reduces species diversity. These results suggest to the scientists that reducing the rate of appearance of genetic variation and the speed at which new species emerge may increase biodiversity in the long-term. This unexpected link between reproductive mode, the speed of evolution and biodiversity suggests that a high evolutionary rate may not be required to yield a large number of species in natural ecosystems. (.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)