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Evolution of Origin: 21st Century's Bitter Truth

By the basic definition evolution is "the process by which new species or populations of living things develop from preexisting forms through successive generations." 

And by scientific terms it goes, "species can change over time, that new species come from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor."

Now we read above lines again and find that both of them are basically the same thing while proving to be wrong at the same time. While many naturalists / geologists proposed their theory on the evolution of life only two of them gained massive attention, that is one being Jean Baptiste Lamarck, one of the best-known early evolutionists, and the other being infamous English naturalist that the world known as ‘Darwin”.

Lamark first ever published his views in the year1801, later in “Philosophic Zoologique" in the year 1805 and subsequently in year 1809 in his book 'Histoire Naturelle Des Animaux Sans Vertèbres’. His works entails that living things evolved in a continuously upward direction, from dead matter, through simple to more complex forms, toward human "perfection." Species didn't die out in extinctions, Lamarck claimed. Instead, they changed into other species.

According to Lamarck, organisms altered their behavior in response to environmental change. Their changed behavior, in turn, modified their organs, and their offspring inherited those "improved" structures. For example, giraffes developed their elongated necks and front legs by generations of browsing on high tree leaves. The exercise of stretching up to the leaves altered the neck and legs, and their offspring inherited these acquired characteristics.


In Lamarck's view, a structure or organ would shrink or disappear if used less or not at all. Driven by these heritable modifications, all organisms would become adapted to their environments as those environments changed.

On the other hand, Darwin published his theory of evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.

 Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted and considered a foundational concept in science. In a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.

According to Darwin's theory, giraffes that happened to have slightly longer necks and limbs would have a better chance of securing food and thus be able to have more offspring -- the "select" who survived or the naturally selected one.

In his book, ‘Origin of Species’, he lastly recapitulated and concluded “The other and more general departments of natural history will rise greatly in interest. The terms used by naturalists, of affinity, relationship, community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive characters, rudimentary and aborted organs, &c., will cease to be metaphorical, and will have a plain signification. When we no longer look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something wholly beyond his comprehension ; when we regard every production of nature as one which has had a long history; when we contemplate every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way as any great mechanical invention is the summing up of the labor, the experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen ; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting—I speak from experience—does the study of natural history become !

By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact.

Now in the 21st century, nearly 165 years after of Darwin proposed theory, where do we stand on the evolution of life. Did we evolved or just barely survived? Today in the hectic needy life of ours are we truly evolving to the better version of mankind or simply surviving the new dystopian era.

The numerous air conditioners cooling our office, 15 tier buildings, residential flats, over the top shopping malls or multiplex open 24/7 in mere minutes, hailing cabs have never been this easy neither traveling to other countries in a quick plan ride (the plethora). Some aviation research websites quote approximately 1,02,465 is the average of daily flights (including small planes, private jets, helicopters etc.). Life was never this easy!!



Let’s do some math’s of how much fuel and energy we are consuming on a day-to-day life and not be forgetful of the over-consumption of everything in the name of aesthetic which we are exploiting on a much larger scale altogether too.  


While the beauty of technology is not hidden and is a boon to us in fact, the horrors are also strongly attached too which are causing our mother planet on the road to an unrepairable destruction namely climate change, frequent floods and storms, forest fire, ocean depletion, landslides, massive land fields filled with non-disposable waste of used clothes and other hazardous garbage and so much more, the list is infinite.

 

Where Darwin's scientific discovery was the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life, the name "Lamarck" is now associated with a discredited view of evolution the inheritance of acquired characters.


Ask ourselves:

Did we evolve from the Dryopithecine to the Homo Sapiens (Wise Men)?  

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