SPECIATION ACCORDING TO DARWIN’S THEORY

Darwin’s evolution theory suggests that adaptations that are complex, very typical in living organisms, evolve through natural selection. He supported his theory with the fact that in any population, there exist more than one variant of mutations. The rate of survival of individuals is highly dependent on their having a beneficial mutation. This gives them an advantage in intra-species competition and in production. The changes in the DNA are replicated and transmitted to future generations through reproduction. Future generations have better chances of survival and reproduction and are able to produce more offspring (Cuozzo 47)

.As time passes, all individuals in a population possess the new beneficial characteristic. The beneficial mutations are continuously fixed with time as species and populations evolve and acquire new adaptive characteristics, behavioral patterns, organs and processes. The Darwinian Theory makes it evidently clear that all systems which operate on the same principles as biological systems must evolve. This process of adaptability continues until the difference the initial and the final generation are so conspicuous that they cannot even interbreed. At this point, a new species is said to have been formed and this process is known as speciation(Jolly 98).

The rate of speciation is accelerated by a geographical separation which necessitates a small population of individuals to interbreed within itself. It is even more probable if the separation is then supported by a difference in the environmental conditions. This difference demands the group to get adaptive characteristics that provision for its survival (Cuozzo 47).

Primates are those animals that have a characterized possession of hands and feet. There have been studies for a long time trying to determine which of the African apes is most related to man.  The studies settled on chimpanzees and bonobos. The decision was based on both the similarity in the body formation and closeness in the level of intelligence. Due to their closeness to man, the speciation of primates has had many researchers.

A number of factors make the level of diversity of the primates occupying different regions only slightly comparable. These include: the ability of their habitat being able to support different species, the degree of isolation of the habitat in its history, the level of knowledge available for each of the primates in their habitat and the level of human disturbance that has been experienced in the area (Jolly 56).

The fossil record is not fully representative of all the primates. From available records, apes evolved from monkeys. The Miocene primates are believed to be the ancestors of all apes and humans. About 14 million years ago, the group of apes from which we originated lived in Southern Europe. The change in climatic conditions pressured some primates to extinction while others moved southwards to Asia Africa. About 9 million years ago, dryopithecines diverged to two groups, the gorillas and the lineage would later diverge to humans and chimpanzees. Around 6 million years ago, another alteration separated chimpanzees from hominids who are our direct ancestors(Spencer, and Stauffer 54).

In conclusion, the process of speciation was highly dependent on both the genetic composition of its population and the geography habiting them. Adaptability of the different members of the population determined which part of their genes would be carried forward and which one would be freed. The more harmful ones gave the individuals a disadvantage in both their survival and their ability to reproduce. On the other hand, the un-harmful mutations were kept as they gave their owners n advantage on the above two grounds.

Works Cited

Cuozzo, Frank P. “Using extant patterns of dental variation to identify species in the primate fossil record: a case study of middle Eocene Omomys from the Bridger Basin, southwestern Wyoming.” Primates (2008): n. pag. Web.

Jolly, A. “The Evolution of Primate Behavior.” (1972): Web.

Spencer, Larry T., and R. C. Stauffer. “Charles Darwin’s Natural Selection: Being the Second Part of His Big Species Book Written from 1856 to 1858.” Bioscience (1977): n. pag. Web.