INTRODUCTION ............................................... 2DARWINIAN THEORY OF EVOLUTION .............................. 4THE THEORY OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION:CONTRIBUTING ELEMENTS ....................... 7WALLACE'S CONTRIBUTIONS ................................... 13HARDY-WEINBERG PRINCIPLE .................................. 15 COMPARISON: LAMARCK vs. DARWIN ........................... 16 DARWIN'S INFLUENCES ....................................... 20METHODS OF SCIENTIFIC DEDUCTION ........................... 23LIMITS TO DARWIN'S THEORY ................................. 25MORPHOLOGICAL & BIOLOGICAL CONCEPTS ....................... 27BIO-EVOLUTION: POPULATION vs. INDIVIDUALS ................ 29MECHANISMS FOR GENETIC VARIATION .......................... 31GENETIC VARIATION AND SPECIATION .......................... 35DARWIN'S FINCHES .......................................... 37SPECIATION vs. CONVERGENT EVOLUTION ....................... 39CONCEPT OF ADAPTATION ..................................... 41PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM ....................................43VALUE/LIMITATIONS: THE THEORY OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION .... 45ALTERNATE EXPLANATIONS OF BEING ........................... 47CONCLUSIONS ............................................... 48INTRODUCTIONTheories explaining biological evolution have been bandied about since the ancient Greeks, but it was not until the Enlightment of the 18th century that widespread acceptance and development of this theory emerged. In the mid 19th century english naturalist Charles Darwin - who has been called the "father of evolution" - conceived of the most comprehensive findings about organic evolution ever1. Today many of his principles still entail modern interpretation of evolution. I've assessed and interpreted the basis of Darwin's theories on evolution, incorporating a number of other factors concerning evolutionary theory in the process. Criticism of Darwin's conclusions abounds somewhat more tha...
