Organisms most suited to their environment are more likely to survive
'Survival of the fittest'
Organisms which cannot adapt to their surroundings may become extinct
Natural selection depends on genetic variation
Knowledge of inheritance and DNA supports Darwin's theory of natural selection
Lamarcks theory of evolution states that characteristics acquired
during an organisms lifetime are passed on to the next generation
Life on Earth today exists because of the conditions that were present when life was evolving. If, in
the past, conditions had been different eg hotter, colder, or the Earth more or less massive, then
evolution by natural selection could have produced some very different results. Our bodies would
have changed to suit the Earth's conditions.
The basic idea behind Darwins theory of evolution is that all the different species have evolved from
simple life forms. These simple life forms first developed more than 3 billion years ago (the Earth is
about 4.5 billion years old). The timeline below shows some of the key events in the evolution of life
on Earth, from the first bacteria to the first modern humans.
New species can arise as a result of isolation. This is where two populations of a species
become geographically separated.
Genetic variation - where each population has a wide range of
alleles that control their characteristics
Natural selection - where the alleles which help an organism to survive are selected in
each population
Speciation - where the populations become so different that successful interbreeding cannot happen
anymore