** spoiler alert ** Learned about accumulative selection. It just gets interesting about variation and human/natural selection and long-term profitable traits which adjusts ofc. It's all about superior pick of traits against counter parts which needs adapt environment. Make sense that there was only few embryonic prototypes on the planet. ≥Naturalists formerly held the view that species are independently created. But Charles Darwin and some other naturalists began to question the immutability of species. They claim that species that appear similar are descended from the same species, only that their “ancestors” are mostly extinct. ≥Natural selection describes the struggle for existence among species whereby some organisms get a better chance of survival over their counterparts. ≥When different autochthonous species interbred, they produced a new breed that turned out to be more sophisticated than the originals. So, sub-breeds formed from breeds that interbred through natural selection. ≥Variation under domestication provides the best explanation for the differences between species today and their ancestors. ≥Humans unconsciously selected plants and animals that showed desirable traits ≥Accumulative selection is a process where humans choose successive variants of an organism based on its usefulness to them. ≥Indefinite variability is a much more common result of changed conditions than definite variability and has probably played a more important part in the formation of our domestic races. ≥Species struggle for survival because there is no room to accommodate their perpetual increase ≥Nature controls the population of species through food supply, climatic conditions, and predators. The strongest and the fittest of species win the struggle for survival and ensure continuity. After some time, the surviving members of a species multiply until a future time when the struggle resumes to solve the problem of scarcity of resources. ≥Natural selection is more powerful than human selection as a determinant of the variability of species. But what course does natural selection take? It begins with slight modifications in some individuals of a species. These modifications give them special abilities that enable them to survive a strange climatic change or other alterations in their living conditions. Subsequent variations will build on the previous profitable variation to produce even better outcomes. ≥The difference between human selection and natural selection is that man selects for his benefit while nature selects for the benefit of the organism itself. ≥It must also be noted that when variation caused by natural selection occurs, other unexpected variations will also happen due to the law of correlation. The parent species adjusts to cater to the needs of the altered daughter species. Over time, the tiny modifications of traits are compiled to produce a whole that preserves the species. ≥Apart from humans and nature, mating needs play a significant role in selection. ≥A response to these objections is that natural selection is a process that occurs over a long period of time. ≥Species that undergo natural selection must have a genealogical tree that allows the descendants to have prolonged lives than their progenitors. ≥In plants, many morphological changes may be connected to the laws of growth and the interaction of parts, independently of natural selection. ≥When the conditions of living of these species change, their variability fluctuates. The fluctuating variability leaves a mark on the species that eventually become permanent. ≥When an external part of an organism gets modified, it often draws nourishment from internal parts that are not modified. ≥Natural selection occurs only when there are variations with features that make them superior to their counterparts. ≥Charles Darwin believed that all animals are descended from, at most, only four or five progenitors, and all plants from an equal or lesser number. ≥Consequently, all members of the same great class or kingdom must have been descended, though modified, from the same ancestor.

I read the Illustrated Edition (2008) put together by David Quammen, which is very beautiful. Filled with sketches, portraits, maps and suggestive remarks from the diaries. Particularly good if, like me, you've struggled with the plaintext. Keys: Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species which are periodically born, but a small number can survive. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection. Looking not to any one time, but to all time, if my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all the species of the same group together, must assuredly have existed; but the very process of natural selection constantly tends, as has been so often remarked, to exterminate the parent forms and the intermediate links. Consequently evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved. (That last sentence had "by the Creator" tacked on in the second edition.) You would never guess the prose was written in a rush: possibly because the arguments were formed at the slowest possible rate.

This book doesn't really need any known basic information about biology, I think this book is really great for teens so that their knowledge and way of thinking expands and mature.

I cant believe I finally finish this. as a biologist one has to read this book. his argumentation is mostly correct but is very long and hard to follow . being used to modern science his writing style is rather weird. I am glad i read it but i did not allways enjoy it.

Biasanya di buku-buku Literatur Science atau Filsafat yang ditulis pada dekade ini, sudah membahas teori evolusi menggunakan hukum mutasinya Morgan atau Muller, dan hukum pewarisannya Mendel. Kita memang sudah sejauh itu dalam memahami teori evolusi. Tapi aku agak penasaran sama teori kontroversial ini gimana asal muasalnya yang versi Darwin. Di mana pada zaman Darwin sendiri belum ada DNA sebagai kendaraan mutasi, jadi DNA semacam missing variable di sana. Pointnya aku mau back to basic dalam mengerti cara kerja kerangka alam yang diusulkan, karena aku sebenarnya masih agak kesusahan ngebayangin dan mahamin teori evolusi. Yang aku tangkep dari buku ini, kerangka teori evolusi dari Darwin ini untuk mendapatkan pengertian yang jelas terhadap arti pewarisan dengan modifikasi dengan melihat kondisi-kondisi apakah yang paling berpengaruh dalam variasi. Kemudian bagaimana seleksi yang dilakukan alam sebagai kekuatan penggerak evolusi. Intinya: - Semua makhluk hidup berasal dari satu atau beberapa leluhur bersama pada masa lalu. - Evolusi bergerak dengan random hingga melahirkan beragam spesies. - Seleksi alam melestarikan variasi yang paling menguntungkan di setiap generasi, dan memusnahkan variasi yang tidak mampu bertahan. - Selagi waktu berjalan dan berlalu, dalam masa-masa geologis yang panjang, ciri-ciri unggul makhluk hidup terkumpul menghasilkan spesies baru. Darwin nggak pernah menyebut kalau manusia berasal dari monyet atau kera modern. Primata yang ada sekarang itu adalah produk evolusi dari leluhur yang hidup zaman dahulu. Sebagaimana mereka, kita juga keturunan leluhur itu, kita satu leluhur bersama, jadi bukan keturunan langsung dari monyet zaman sekarang. Kritik-kritik serius yang dihadapi oleh Charles Darwin tentang teorinya juga dibahas, seperti keberadaan spesies transisi, hibridisme yang menghasilkan makhluk hidup mandul. Kemudian bagaimana teori evolusi bisa menghasilkan kebiasaan makhluk hidup yang berbeda-beda, naluri, juga organ-organ kompleks sepert mata. Jawabannya bisa ditemukan di buku ini, walaupun jawaban yang diberikan ya jawaban pada masa itu.