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Y6 EVOLUTION AND INHERITANCE LESSON 4: ‘On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection’

TODAY YOU WILL LEARN About the publication of Darwin’s book ‘On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection’ Why Charles Darwin’s Finches were such an important part of his Theory Of Evolution How Evolution by Natural Selection really works

DARWIN FINALLY PUBLISHES HIS IDEAS After he came back from the voyage of the Beagle, Darwin started to put his ideas together ready for publication. It took him over 20 years to do this!

WHY DID IT TAKE HIM SO LONG? It was such a complicated theory that he needed a long time to work it out. He also wanted to make sure that he would be able to defend it if people tried to say it was wrong.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE SAY IT WAS WRONG? At that time in history, there was a lot of belief in a religious view of the world from Christianity and other religions, which used the bible to date the point at which life on Earth began to between 5,000 and 7,000 years old.

WHY WOULD PEOPLE SAY IT WAS WRONG? Even now, many people still believe in this ‘Creationism’ point of view, even though there is an overwhelming amount of evidence to prove Darwin’s Theory of Evolution.

ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE In fact, Darwin would have taken even longer to publish his book if it hadn’t been for a man called Alfred Russell Wallace, who wrote to Darwin to say that he had the same idea!

1859: DARWIN PUBLISHES Darwin quickly realised that he needed to publish his idea in something called a ‘scientific paper’. He also made sure that Wallace’s paper was published at the same time.

Soon afterwards, one of the most famous books in the history of science was published, with the full title ‘On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection’. 1859: DARWIN PUBLISHES

BUT WHAT DID IT ALL MEAN?

LET’S LOOK IN MORE DETAIL AT TWO THINGS ABOUT THE THEORY OF EVOLUTION THAT WE LEARNED IN THE LAST LESSON..

WHAT DARWIN LEARNED – HIS ‘THEORY OF EVOLUTION’ That differences in the offspring of living things (called VARIATION) create different characteristics that give them a better or worse chance of survival in different conditions, called NATURAL SELECTION. This slow process over millions of years results in living things changing to adapt to their environments, leading to completely new species, which he called the THEORY OF EVOLUTION.

Or in other words, if you fit the place you are born in better than the other creatures around you, you will live longer!

DARWIN’S FINCHES One of Darwin’s main discoveries were the different types of finches in the Galapagos islands, which all had different beaks to match different food even though they had all descended from the same basic type of bird!

DARWIN’S FINCHES: DIFFERENT BEAKS FOR DIFFERENT JOBS!

NATURAL SELECTION Why have these animal attributes been ‘selected’ by nature to give the animal a better chance of survival?

NATURAL SELECTION

LEARNING CHECK: Tell the person next to you.. What the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection is

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