What is evolution?
Evolution is the slow development of living creatures to adapt to their changing environment. It's the process of how all of the many different, diverse, and amazing animals, plants, and other living things on Earth came to have their special and unique features and traits.
The idea behind evolution is that all things living today developed and adapted from their ancestors in earlier forms.The way that organisms adapt and change over time is known as Natural Selection. Natural Selection means that living things with the most favorable features are more likely to reproduce and successfully pass on their good traits! As the strongest features are passed on over and over again, the species is said to evolve. Think, for example, about an animal who relies on running quickly to catch its prey. An animal from this species with a special curved foot who runs faster than the others is more likely to thrive and pass along its special features! When its offspring also thrive thanks to their special foot, they pass along their features too. If this keeps on happening over the course of a long time, the individuals who don't have the curved foot will die out, and the species will have adapted and evolved into an animal with special curved feet!
Being able to evolve and change to meet new circumstances in the world makes it possible for living creatures to survive! Evolving also allows plants, animals and humans to all be unique and have their own interesting, diverse features!
by Mya Kagan (Whyzz writer)
Exploration
Ch-ch-ch-changes! What are some of the plants or animals you know about who have special features that help them to survive?
Cacti that are able to survive in the desert where there is very little water are one really good example, and camels who have special humps to store food and water for long trips in the hot desert are another one!What about animals like cats and rodents, who mostly stay awake at night and have special eyes that are able to see better than others in the dark?? Can you think of any other good examples? Why do you think evolving to have these special features helped each plant or animal to survive?
Further Information
Some ways in which evolution has been examined include studying fossils to see the change in certain animals over time, and looking at the inherited traits (DNA) passed along to certain species by their ancestors.
There is one scientist that is most famous for his work on the theory of evolution. His name is Charles Darwin.
