or around 3.7 billion years, life has followed a roadmap of evolution. The journey to modern-day life and the more than 2.16 million known species that reside on Earth has been guided by several different evolutionary pathways. The naturalist known as ‘the father of evolution’, Charles Darwin, first proposed the theory of evolution by natural selection after he jumped aboard the HMS Beagle in 1831 and sailed around the world for five years. On his travels, he discovered diverse wildlife, observing that they had anatomy specially adapted to their environments. He concluded that a species’ survival depends on traits that suit its environment. This survival-of-the-fittest approach means that only animals with beneficial characteristics can continue to reproduce and pass them onto their offspring. Darwin proposed that through forces of evolution, an ancestral family tree formed below modern-day species, leading to a common ancestor at
HOW LIFE EVOLVES
Aug 03, 2023
5 minutes
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