ASSIGNMENT

Darwinism and Neo-Darwinism

Submitted By: salma shahbbir

ROLL No# 542

Department of Zoology Government Sadiq College

Women University Bahawalpur
Darwinism is a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–
1882) and others, stating that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of
small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce. Also
called Darwinian Theory, it originally included the broad concepts of transmutation of species or of
evolution which gained general scientific acceptance after Darwin published On the Origin of Species in
1859, including concepts which predated Darwin's theories. English biologist Thomas Henry
Huxley coined the term Darwinism in April 1860

Evolution by natural selection is one of the best substantiated theories in the history of science,
supported by evidence from a wide variety of scientific disciplines, including paleontology, geology,
genetics and developmental biology. In the 1850s, Darwin wrote an influential and controversial book
called On the Origin of Species. In it, he proposed that species evolve (or, as he put it, undergo "descent
with modification"), and that all living things can trace their descent to a common ancestor.

Darwin also suggested a mechanism for evolution: natural selection, in which heritable traits that
help organisms survive and reproduce become more common in a population over time. A heritable trait
is one that's passed on from parents to children by way of genes. For instance, eye color is a heritable
trait: it is determined by the genes you get from your mom and dad.

Evolution:

Darwin proposed that species can change over time, that new species come from pre-existing
species, and that all species share a common ancestor. In this model, each species has its own unique set
of heritable (genetic) differences from the common ancestor, which have accumulated gradually over
very long time periods. Repeated branching events, in which new species split off from a common
ancestor, produce a multi-level "tree" that links all living organisms. Darwin referred to this process, in
which groups of organisms change in their heritable traits over generations, as “descent with
modification." Today, we call it evolution.

Natural selection:

Darwin didn't just propose that organisms evolved. Darwin also proposed a mechanism for
evolution: natural selection. This mechanism was elegant and logical, and it explained how populations
could evolve (undergo descent with modification) in such a way that they became better suited to their
environments over time.

Darwin's concept of natural selection was based on several key observations:

Traits are often heritable. In living organisms, many characteristics are inherited, or passed from parent
to offspring. (Darwin knew this was the case, even though he did not know that traits were inherited via
genes.)

More offspring are produced than can survive. Organisms are capable of producing more offspring
than their environments can support. Thus, there is competition for limited resources in each generation.

Offspring vary in their heritable traits. The offspring in any generation will be slightly different from
one another in their traits (color, size, shape, etc.), and many of these features will be heritable.
Based on these simple observations, Darwin concluded the following:

 In a population, some individuals will have inherited traits that help them survive and reproduce
(given the conditions of the environment, such as the predators and food sources present). The
individuals with the helpful traits will leave more offspring in the next generation than their
peers, since the traits make them more effective at surviving and reproducing.

 Because the helpful traits are heritable, and because organisms with these traits leave more
offspring, the traits will tend to become more common (present in a larger fraction of the
population) in the next generation.

 Over generations, the population will become adapted to its environment (as individuals with
traits helpful in that environment have consistently greater reproductive success than their peers).

How natural selection can work (Example):

To make natural selection more concrete, let's consider a simplified, hypothetical example. In this
example, a group of mice with heritable variation in fur color (black vs. tan) has just moved into a new
area where the rocks are black. This environment features hawks, which like to eat mice and can see the
tan ones more easily than the black ones against the black rock.

Because the hawks can see and catch the tan mice more easily, a relatively large fraction of the
tan mice are eaten, while a much smaller fraction of the black mice are eaten. If we look at the ratio of
black mice to tan mice in the surviving ("not-eaten") group, it will be higher than in the starting
population.

Fur color is a heritable trait (one that can be passed from parent to child). So, the increased
fraction of black mice in the surviving group means an increased fraction of black baby mice in the next
generation. After several generations of selection, the population might be made up almost entirely of
black mice. This change in the heritable features of the population is an example of evolution.

Natural selection depends on the environment

Natural selection doesn't favor traits that are somehow inherently superior. Instead, it favors traits
that are beneficial (that is, help an organism survive and reproduce more effectively than its peers) in a
specific environment. Traits that are helpful in one environment might actually be harmful in another.

Natural selection acts on existing heritable variation

Natural selection needs some starting material, and that starting material is heritable variation.
For natural selection to act on a feature, there must already be variation (differences among individuals)
for that feature. Also, the differences have to be heritable, determined by the organisms' genes.

Heritable variation comes from random mutations

 The original source of the new gene variants that produce new heritable traits, such as fur colors,
is random mutation (changes in DNA sequence). Random mutations that are passed on to offspring
typically occur in the germline, or sperm and egg cell lineage, of organisms. Sexual reproduction "mixes
and matches" gene variants to make more variation.

Evolution by natural selection and other mechanisms underlies the incredible diversity of present-day life
forms, and the action of natural selection can explain the fit between present-day organisms and their
environments.

Neo-Darwinism is generally used to describe any integration of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by
natural selection with Gregor Mendel's theory of genetics. Neo-Darwinian viewpoint is defined as genetic
change in populations through time (descent with change), with modern organisms being descendents of
earlier, different organisms. In addition to natural selection, mutation, random genetic drift (i.e., random
fluctuations in gene frequencies due to chance), and gene flow are considered important factors of
evolutionary change with mutation being the ultimate source of genetic variation.

Difference between “Darwinism” and “Neo-Darwinism:

Darwinism.

 It is the original theory given by Charles Darwin (1859) to explain the origin of new species.

 According to this theory accumulation of continuous variations causes change in individuals to

form new species.
 It believes in the selection of individuals on the basis of accumulation of variations.
 Darwinism does not believe in isolation.
 It can explain the origin of new characters.
 Darwinism cannot explain the persistence of certain forms in the unchanged condition.

Neo-Darwinism:

 Neo-Darwinism is a modification of the original theory of Darwin to remove its short-comings.

 Instead of continuous variations mutations are believed to help form new species.

 Variations accumulate in the gene pool and not in the individuals

Neo-Darwinism has failed as an evolutionary theory that can explain the origin of species, understood as
organisms of distinctive form and behaviour. In other words, it is not an adequate theory of evolution

References:
Dobzhansky, T. (1937/1982). Genetics and the Origin of Species (Columbia Classics in Evolution, with
an introduction by Stephen Jay Gould). New York: Columbia University Press.

Gayon, J. (2003). From Darwin to today in evolutionary biology. In J. Hodge & G. Radick (Eds). The
Cambridge Companion to Darwin (pp. 240–64). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Neo-Darwinism#Origin_of_the_term_neo-Darwinism

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