Charles Darwin's Evolution, The Origin Of Species

785 Words4 Pages
Darwin described ‘Evolution’ as the growth of a tree, the “Tree of Life.” The tree began with a single organism at the root, with myriad species branching off from the trunk. The late 20th century version of the Modern Synthesis assumed the main pattern of evolutionary divergence to be at all times and for all taxa in the semblance of a tree. Microbes constantly swap DNA. Hybrid plants and animals cross species lines, blurring the demarcation. The theory of evolution continues to evolve…. The year 2009 was the 200th anniversary of the publication of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's Philosophie Zoologique and the 150th anniversary of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species. Evolutionary biology has begun to re-evaluate the role of organisms in the construction of their own environment or niche. Rather than the passive victims of natural selection, organisms are increasingly seen as active agents by means of the impact they exert on their environments. The role of nature or the environmental forces that combine to produce “the struggle for existence” of Darwin is certainly not ignored. Rather, the emphasis is now on reciprocity, or the ‘dialectical’ relationship between organism and environment, part and whole, subject and object. The resurgence of environmentalism and the role of the ‘subject’ in its construction make sense in view of the enormous impact of living…show more content…
One notable example quoted by him was the case as it might exist with respect to Giraffes. Lamarck contended that as trees began to grow taller, giraffes responded to the change by growing longer necks so that they could continue to feed. His second contention was that (b) that this change was permanent for as long as the new environmental conditions continued to apply. In other words, nature chose the best possible solution and organisms (species) responded
Open Document