The story of how a small mammal called an indohus evolved into a whale illustrates a key concept in evolutionary theory. The theories of Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, and others formed the basis of modern evolutionary theory, which plays an important role in understanding the diversity of life and how it changes.
Until recently, whales were thought to have been hippopotamuses, but new research suggests that their ancestors were deer-like mammals, similar in size to raccoons but without the horns. According to The Science Times, a professor at Northwestern Ohio University in the United States found that a small, long-legged, large rat-like mammal called an indohus lived before there were whales or dolphins. They were herbivores that lived by the water’s edge, eating fish and gradually adapting to living in the water. This evolutionary process is how whales came to be.
But what is evolution, and how did the tiny indohus change into a giant whale? There are tons of animals in the world, some similar to each other and some very different. With the development of natural science, the theory of evolution emerged, and many biologists and other scholars contributed to its development. The theories of Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, and Dawkins, among others, form the core of modern evolutionary theory.
Evolution is the phenomenon in which organisms change over generations, and the characteristics of a population change as new species are created. For evolution to occur, there are a few essential laws. First, organisms must be able to self-replicate. For variation to occur, complete self-replication must be avoided, and the variation that results from this process provides the potential for development and differentiation over time. Variation is divided into genetic variation and variation caused by environmental factors, of which genetic variation is passed on to the next generation. Dominant genes perpetuate variations that are favorable for survival through further replication, and this process is known as natural selection.
Evolutionary biology is the study of evolutionary phenomena in biological populations, and the theory of evolution has been developed through various studies. The first to propose the concept of evolution was the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who argued that evolution occurs as organisms adapt to their environment, acquire new traits, and pass them on to the next generation. This theory is known as the theory of descent, and is not accepted by modern evolutionary theory. Nevertheless, Lamarck’s theory played an important role in sparking interest in evolutionary theory.
Charles Darwin was a British biologist who was instrumental in formulating the theory of evolution. He traveled around the world on the Beagle and observed small changes in similar species. When he noticed that the beak shape of finches in the Galapagos Islands changed from island to island, Darwin developed a theory of evolution. Based on his research, he published his theory of evolution through natural selection in The Origin of Species in 1859. Darwin’s theory explained that development and differentiation occurred over long periods of time, but his theory was not widely accepted at the time.
It wasn’t until Mendel’s laws of inheritance that Darwin’s theory could be explained on a genetic basis. Mendel established the laws of dominance, segregation, and independence through his pea crossing experiments. His laws became fundamental principles for explaining hereditary phenomena and contributed greatly to the development of the theory of evolution.
In the 20th century and beyond, attempts were made to link Darwin’s natural selection with Mendel’s laws of inheritance, and the various theories merged to form modern evolutionary theory. Julian Huxley synthesized the theories, and Richard Dawkins helped popularize them. Dawkins argued that the unit of natural selection is the gene, and explained how the survival of genes leads to the evolution of life.
The theory of evolution has influenced many fields of study beyond biology. For example, evolutionary theory has had a major impact on computer science, with genetic algorithms allowing programs to evolve automatically. As you can see, evolutionary theory has contributed to the development of many fields and is the foundation of modern scientific theory.
The evolution of small mammals like the indohus into whales can be better understood through modern evolutionary theory. Lamarck, Darwin, Mendel, and others laid the groundwork for evolutionary theory, and today it is applied in many different fields of study. Evolutionary theory plays an important role in explaining the diversity and complexity of life and helps us understand the origins of all living things, including humans.
