Question

Discuss what Darwin observed during his voyage on the Beagle. How did those observations lead to his theory about common descent with modification?

Use the scientific method in your discussion.

• Step 1: What did he observe?
• Step 2: What was his hypothesis?
• Step 3: What prediction was made based on his hypothesis?
• Step 4: How can the prediction be tested using similar observations?
• Step 5: What was the conclusion?

Your response must be at least 200 words in length.

Answer 1

In 1831,  Darwin  he set sail on a scientific expedition on a ship called the HMS Beagle .He was the naturalist on the voyage. As a naturalist, it was his job to observe and collect specimens of plants, animals, rocks, and fossils wherever the expedition went ashore. During the long voyage, Darwin made many observations that helped him form his theory of evolution.

1.He visited tropical rainforests and other new habitats where he saw many plants and animals he had never seen before.

He experienced an earthquake that lifted the ocean floor 2.7 meters (9 feet) above sea level. He also found rocks containing fossil sea shells in mountains high above sea level. These observations suggested that continents and oceans had changed dramatically over time and continue to change in dramatic way.

He visited rock ledges that had clearly once been beaches that had gradually built up over time. This suggested that slow, steady processes also change Earth’s surface.

2.Darwin had in natural selection an explanatory hypothesis to account for the adaptations of organisms that would allow him to design observations and experiments for testing the hypothesis' validity.

3.Darwin meant by ‘a theory by which to work’ was no less than natural selection and trying to derived as predictions,the expected consequences of natural selection in action over long periods of time. From natural selection, Darwin tried to derive those very same basic patterns that he had seen in the natural world.

4.The scientific method includes 2 episodes. The first consists of formulating hypotheses; the second consists of experimentally testing them. What differentiates science from other knowledge is the second episode: subjecting hypotheses to empirical testing by observing whether or not predictions derived from a hypothesis are the case in relevant observations and experiments.

5.the proper conclusion is that the test has failed to falsify the null hypothesis, not that its truth has been established.