OEB 53 Chapter Notes -Special Creation

• School: Harvard University
• Department: Organismic and Evolutionary Biology
• Course: OEB 53
• Professor: Andrew Berry

Document Summary

The origin of the species: chapter 2 (variation under nature) Darwin needs to convince readers that enough variation is present in nature for natural selection to act on, resulting in the current diversity of life. Darwin starts out with making the observation that naturalists have not been able to come to any definite conclusion about what is considered a species and what is considered a variety. He reasons that varieties may eventually become species if they become strongly marked and more permanent varieties , with a variety becoming so numerous as to compete with the parent species. He eventually concludes that these terms are more or less arbitrary, finding that species is usually applied to a group of individuals that closely resemble each other, while variety is given to less distinct forms. It does not seem like he is successful in distinguishing between the two terms.