Matt VanNoy Essay Example For Students

Matt VanNoy Essay The origin of life is an explanation, either from an evolutionistsstandpoint, or a creationists standpoint, about where life started. Anevolutionist, someone who believes in evolution, would believe that lifestarted from a scientific explanation, such as a chemical reaction takingplace, or from microorganisms on an outer space asteroid. Evolution is theslow change of a species over time to adapt to a new environment, or achanging environment. While Charles Darwin was traveling the globe on theHMS Beagle, he came upon an island of which now is known as the GalapagosIslands. He noted that the animals from there, and the animals from thecoast of South America were similar in body structure or function. This ledto Darwins Theory of Natural Selection, which is a mechanism for change inpopulations that occurs when organisms with favorable variations for aparticular environment survive, reproduce, and pass these variations on tothe next generation. I believe in evolution, and the theory tha t allanimals evolved from a common ancestor. Three points that I have to supportmy idea of evolution are: Darwins Theory of Natural Selection, geneticmutations occur in populations, and the fossil theory. My first piece of evidence to support evolution is Darwins Theory ofNatural Selection. Some animals in the wild are prone to be prey to otheranimals. As a way to ensure that their species will not die out, thespecies will overproduce their offspring; fish for example, may layhundreds to thousands of eggs, where only a fraction of that will actuallylive. Another part of Natural Selection is that some variations arefavorable, and some are not. This means that some animals of a species gaincertain favorable traits, mate, and pass the genes down from generation togeneration. Animals with unfavorable variations die out, and leave thatmuch more room for stronger traits. Gradually, the younger generations thathave the stronger traits make up more of the population, and become adominant species. Every now and then, as the stronger genes are passed down in the genepool, mutations occur. Many of these mutations are helpful ones, which stayin the gene pool, and make the species different even further. Harmfulgenes never really affect the population, because it is unlikely that theorganism carrying the mutation will survive. Over time, more and more ofthe helpful genes build up, and eventually turn the group of evolvedanimals into a whole different species. Fossils are traces of animals that used to live long ago. They caneither be imprints, or bones that have been buried deep below the earth. Wecan examine the fossils, and grasp an idea of how the animal would havelooked like. We can also date the fossils either by using radiometricmethods, or by looking at its place in the geologic column. The geologiccolumns are layers of rock that have piled on top of other layers of rockover a long period of time. So, by using this method, scientists can figureout about how long ago the animal lived. I believe in evolution because of the fact that there are many piecesof evidence supporting it, unlike with creationism, which seems to just belike spontaneous generation. With more and more evidence supportingevolution, scientists may one day be able to prove the theory of evolution,and one of the worlds greatest mysteries can be solved.