Given below are two stages in the evolution of man. Study them and answer the questions that follow: Given below are two stages in the evolution of man. Study them and answer the questions that follow:
Who proposed the theory of ‘Natural Selection’?
Topic: Theory of Natural Selection
Answer
CHARLES DARWIN.
Darwin set the theory out in "On the Origin of Species" (1859). Its core: organisms vary; more offspring are produced than can survive; those with variations better suited to the environment survive and reproduce; and over generations those favourable variations accumulate — "survival of the fittest".
DO NOT CONFUSE HIM WITH LAMARCK, the other name in this chapter. Lamarck proposed the INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERS — that a giraffe stretching its neck passes the longer neck to its young — a theory now rejected, since changes to body cells do not alter the genes in the gametes.
That distinction is tested directly in Question 1(b)(i) of this same paper.