Channel: Naked Science

Category: Science & Technology

Tags: argumenteducationevidencecharlesdivinevariationresearchreproduceschooldarwinbearproofgenerationfittestirisperiodenvironmentalbiologynaturalindividualsurvivalsupremehistoryeyevisionselectionscienceplanttheorycreaturestudyalivejellyfishideaorigindifferencesexplainedlenslifecharacteristicexamplediversityworldmammalretinadesignwildlifepolarcreatorprocesspredatoradvantageevolutionintelligenttropicaltruthspeciesearthsmithsoniancambrian

Description: Subscribe to Naked Science – goo.gl/wpc2Q1 Panama, Central America, as dawn breaks the forest comes alive, this is one of the richest environments on Earth. Here more than anywhere you cannot avoid one inescapable fact – life is varied! But what created this dazzling diversity, and how did the Earth’s myriad of species come to be? Some think they must be the work of a divine creator. Darwin on the other hand claimed that they evolved naturally through a process called natural selection, one of the most breathtaking ideas ever conceived. How can a blind undirected force of nature create new species? Darwin saw the answer in an unlikely place, the relentless slaughter of the natural world. Some individuals have characteristics that make them more likely to survive, these individual are more likely to live long enough to produce young – this is survival of the fittest. Darwin said that over many generations these small differences can grow into large differences, with the changes eventually becoming so great that they lead to new species. This explains how life gets more complex, but how does it get more diverse and how does one species become two – according to Darwin the answer lies in the environment.