Consider a rabbit….

What types of characteristics could a rabbit have that would make it NOT

good at surviving?

•slow

•doesn’t blend in to its surroundings

•not very smart – gets into dangerous situations

If the rabbit survives, he’ll be able to reproduce and pass on his

favorable genes. If he doesn’t survive, he and his genes will be

lost forever……..

In nature, there are a limited amount of resources, and life can be tough. Only the strongest organisms, and those that are best suited to their environment, survive. This is called natural selection. The strongest are selected by nature to survive, and the weak

are selected by nature to die

Evolution is the term for the changes that organisms go through over time.

How do we know so much about evolution today?

Charles Darwin was the first person to extensively research the differences among organisms and to think about where they came

from and how they changed over time.

In 1831, when Darwin was 22, he was offered the position of “naturalist” on a

ship making a voyage around the world. The trip lasted five years.

Along the way, Darwin took very careful notes, collected many fossils, and made careful observations of everything he saw. One of the stops made on the

voyage was to the Galapagos islands…

The Galapagos islands had many interesting forms of flora and fauna.

Darwin was particularly interested in the finches on the island. He found 13 types of finches that were very similar, but had small differences, like in the size of their

beaks.

Based on information from fossils and what Darwin observed in the finches, he

reasoned that organisms change over time to adapt to their environments, and

that similar organisms must have a common ancestor.

That means that at one point, there was just one type of finch. Over time, the finches evolved and adapted to their

environment, resulting in new types of finches. Some have big beaks, some

have little beaks, some can drill holes in trees to get food…All of these traits are

adaptations that help them survive.