Charles Darwin International Day

2007/02/12 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Eboluzioa

Giraffe has not developed a long neck to eat the upper leaves of acacias. Upside down. Giraffe has developed a long hill that allows to eat the upper leaves of acacias. Almost any evolutionary expert defends this idea today, but the British Charles Darwin did not think so. However, in the famous book The Origin of Species, he proposed that natural selection was the way evolution progresses. Are there good leaves on top of the acacias? Well, it's best to have a long neck. It was an innovative, revolutionary idea, and it was a breakthrough in biology. Later, however, biologists (at least as Darwin himself proposed) questioned this concept. And worse, Darwin also had great doubts about natural selection, especially at the end of life. He did not propose the idea of evolution (among other things, proposed by Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles). Moreover, he failed to explain the mechanism of evolution. Darwin showed that evolution is real, that all living beings are born of a single ancestor. And he proposed natural selection, opened a new way to understand biology. And not only that, but with the book The origin of species extended the idea of evolution to the four winds. It changed society. That's why every year its birthday is celebrated: February 12, Darwin Day. Within two years, in addition, society celebrates its bicentennial. It will be a great event.