In: Biology
1. Charles Darwin made 2 broad observations.
1. Individuals in a population vary in their heritable characteristics
2. Organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support.
Explain these observations and how they fit in with Darwin’s ideas on “Descent with modification.”
2. Explain genetic variation - How does new genetic variation appear? How does this relate to alleles, natural selection and evolution?
1. Individuals in a population vary in their heritable characteristics.
All individuals in a population are not exact replicas of each other. This results in providing each of them distinctive advantages when exposed to different types of stress or competition.
These changes or advatages are then inherited by their offsprings which, over the generations continue to accumulate these advantages as they help them to survive in changing conditions.
These changes finally result in the formation of a new species.
2. Organisms produce more offspring than the environment can support.
More individuals are present than what can be provided for
without the individuals competing for them.
Hence, this results in competition of individuals for limited
number of resources.
It is in this competition that the specific advantages that specific individuals have provide them an edge over the competition and allow them to increase their genome in the population.
Since no specific question has been asked, only the first question has been answered.