Evolution Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Darwinian revolution === The crucial break from the concept of constant typological classes or types in biology came with the theory of evolution through natural selection, which was formulated by [[Charles Darwin]] and [[Alfred Wallace]] in terms of variable populations. Darwin used the expression "'''descent with modification'''" rather than "evolution".<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/search-results?pagesize=50&sort=date-ascending&pageno=0&freetext=descent+with+modification&allfields=&searchid=&name=Darwin+Charles+Robert&dateafter=&datebefore=&searchtitle=&description=&place=&publisher=&periodical= |title=Search results for "descent with modification" – The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online |access-date=30 July 2022 |archive-date=5 June 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605101314/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/search-results?pagesize=50&sort=date-ascending&pageno=0&freetext=descent+with+modification&allfields=&searchid=&name=Darwin+Charles+Robert&dateafter=&datebefore=&searchtitle=&description=&place=&publisher=&periodical= |url-status=live }}</ref> Partly influenced by ''[[An Essay on the Principle of Population]]'' (1798) by [[Thomas Robert Malthus]], Darwin noted that population growth would lead to a "struggle for existence" in which favourable variations prevailed as others perished. In each generation, many offspring fail to survive to an age of reproduction because of limited resources. This could explain the diversity of plants and animals from a common ancestry through the working of natural laws in the same way for all types of organism.<ref name="Sober09">{{cite journal |last=Sober |first=Elliott |author-link=Elliott Sober |date=16 June 2009 |title=Did Darwin write the ''Origin'' backwards? |journal=[[Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America|PNAS]] |volume=106 |issue=Suppl. 1 |pages=10048–10055 |bibcode=2009PNAS..10610048S |doi=10.1073/pnas.0901109106 |issn=0027-8424 |pmid=19528655 |pmc=2702806|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Mayr|2002|p=165}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Bowler|2003|pp=145–146}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sokal |first1=Robert R. |author-link1=Robert R. Sokal |last2=Crovello |first2=Theodore J. |date=March–April 1970 |title=The Biological Species Concept: A Critical Evaluation |journal=[[The American Naturalist]] |volume=104 |issue=936 |pages=127–153 |doi=10.1086/282646 |issn=0003-0147 |jstor=2459191|s2cid=83528114 }}</ref> Darwin developed his theory of "natural selection" from 1838 onwards and was writing up his "big book" on the subject when [[Alfred Russel Wallace]] sent him a version of virtually the same theory in 1858. Their [[On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection|separate papers]] were presented together at an 1858 meeting of the [[Linnean Society of London]].<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Darwin |first1=Charles |author-link1=Charles Darwin |last2=Wallace |first2=Alfred |author-link2=Alfred Russel Wallace |date=20 August 1858 |title=On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection |url=http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F350&viewtype=text&pageseq=1 |journal=[[Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society|Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London. Zoology]] |volume=3 |issue=9 |pages=45–62 |doi=10.1111/j.1096-3642.1858.tb02500.x |issn=1096-3642 |access-date=13 May 2007 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070714042318/http://darwin-online.org.uk/content/frameset?itemID=F350&viewtype=text&pageseq=1 |archive-date=14 July 2007|doi-access=free }}</ref> At the end of 1859, Darwin's publication of his "abstract" as ''On the Origin of Species'' explained natural selection in detail and in a way that led to an increasingly wide acceptance of [[Darwinism|Darwin's concepts of evolution]] at the expense of [[Alternatives to evolution by natural selection|alternative theories]]. [[Thomas Henry Huxley]] applied Darwin's ideas to humans, using [[paleontology]] and [[comparative anatomy]] to provide strong evidence that humans and [[ape]]s shared a common ancestry. Some were disturbed by this since it implied that humans did not have a special place in the [[universe]].<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |last=Desmond |first=Adrian J. |author-link=Adrian Desmond |encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]] |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/277746/Thomas-Henry-Huxley |title=Thomas Henry Huxley |access-date=2 December 2014 |date=17 July 2014 |publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]] |location=Chicago, Illinois |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150119231241/https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/277746/Thomas-Henry-Huxley |archive-date=19 January 2015}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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