Evolution is the scientific way of explaining how species come into existence and how they change over time. Evolution is also a mythology which explains the origin of human beings. Most of the evidence for evolution, which come as a result of historical and cultural processes contributes to scientific thought, hence making the scientists accept evolution as a fact. The process of evolution has many areas of discussion, for example, the four forces of evolution, the concepts of species and population, variation, isolation mechanisms, and speciation. This paper explains the concepts one by one in details.
There were different ideas held earlier, which concluded that species did not change over time, for example Catastrophism which explains the disappearance of some species but still stick to religious doctrine. Some non–religious theories such as uniformitarianism were proposed to account for the variation on the earth's surface. When it comes to population, genetic study shows evolutionary processes and how they affect designs and levels of biodiversity on the ground surface.
The forces active at the community level include mutation, the genetic drift, which was to have a big sign in the small population, Gene flow, and natural selection (Theodorakis 380). Variation about population involves the study of biological diversity. This approach, which includes analyzing the spatial distribution of different human traits makes it easier for anthropologists to recognize the correlation between relationship to the environment and the trait's adaptive function.
There are four forces of evolution are the mutation, genetic drift, gene flow and natural selection. Mutation is the ultimate source of the new genetic material as a result of the continuous induction of different genetic materials. Mutation is, therefore, the changes which different species undergoes during evolution. Genetic drift has various types, and the most common one is the "Founder's Effect" which could have been significant in evolution in areas with a small population. Gene flow refers to the species movement with the genetic materials they carry for example, in Neolithic revolution; the species shifted from hunting, gathering and fishing economy to a new economy in food production
Natural selection was formed by Charles Darwin, who was mainly influenced by Erasmus and Thomas's works. The theory culminated in Darwin's seminal text "on the origin of species. Natural selection is the collection of all the beneficial adjustments which are made to the environment when it comes to its adaptation. Natural adaptation can also act only on the pre-existing genetic variation. Therefore, the species can be differentiated from each other using the natural selection.
Through microevolution, one can understand the process of speciation. Micro-evolutionary forces which include genetic drift, mutation, gene flow and natural selection may result in the formation of new species or speciation. Speciation occurs in two branching modes which are: cladogenesis and anagenesis (Benton 399). There are also the various speeds that speciation may occur, and they include Darwinian Gradualism and Punctuated equilibria.
Isolation mechanism happens when there is the lack of gene mixture, for example, some research showed a study which was relating the Neanderthal genome and the five living human populations. The results from the study demonstrated a significant proportion of Neanderthal genes exist among the non-African populations, giving proof that there was mating between the Neanderthal and the modern humans.
In conclusion, evolution process is not a planned process simply because there are some theories which are not complete such as Darwin's theory (Aldrich 580). To some extent, the development of human kinds enables one to know their origins and who were their ancestors. For example, when one reads about the first species such as Homo-habilis, he will be able to know how they came to evolve, what they were good at and their economic activities. Through evolution, one is also able to understand the four forces of evolution and their variation.
Work cited
Aldrich, Howard E., et al. "In defense of generalized Darwinism." Journal of Evolutionary Economics 18.5 (2008): 577-596.
Benton, Michael J. "Patterns and rates of species evolution." Biological systematics. From Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems, EOLSS Publishers, Oxford, UK Available at http://palaeo. gly. bris. ac. uk/Benton/reprints/2003eolss. html (2003): 393-420.
Theodorakis, Christopher W., et al. "Evidence of altered gene flow, mutation rate, and genetic diversity in redbreast sunfish from a pulp-mill-contaminated river." Environmental science & technology 40.1 (2006): 377-386.
