MadSci Net: Evolution (View this file without Frames) |
Hi You can read Darwin's books over the Internet at Darwin's Origin of Species but remember that when Darwin was writing scientists did not know anything at all about genetics, cell biology, environmental science, ecology or microbiology! At that time we were just starting to understand how the world works. So naturally you could not expect Darwin to come up with complete explanations for every detail of Evolution! :) The main things that Darwin was trying to explain were: -- living things continually change and mutate. -- if the changes are useful and help the animal or plant to survive, then those species will prosper and spread, but if the change is not useful then the descendants of that line will probably die out. -- since conditions on the earth change, what is useful at one time may not be useful later... the number of different species and the proportion of different species will change over time. Instead of me trying to explain a lot of the details, you might like to connect to these sites: The University of California Evolution site and Human Evolution -- a web page at the University of Indiana thanks for the question! matt
MadSci Home | Information |
Search |
MAD Library | MAD Labs |
MAD FAQs |
Ask a ? |
Join Us!
Help Support MadSci