When Charles Darwin published the Origin of Species, he provided evidence for which of the following concepts related to evolution? (choose all that apply)

a. descent with modification as a process for speciation

b. Natural selection as a mechanism for change

c. Inheritance of acquired characteristics

d. Characteristics developed in organisms because they used it more.

e. Genetic drift as a mechanism for evolution

Answer: all of them apply to Darwin's concepts.

The following concepts related to evolution are:

Letter A

Letter B

Letter C

Letter D

Letter E

Explanation:

1. Darwin defined evolution as descent with modification meaning that species change over time, give rise to new species and share a common ancestor. (letter A)

2. Since the natural selection is mechanism proposed bay Darwin for evolution, based on the fact that resources are limited in nature, organism with heritable traits that favor survival and reproduction tend to leave more offspring than their peers, causing to increase in frequency over generations. (Letter C and E)

3. Natural selection causes populations to become adapted, or increasingly well-suited, to their environments over time. It depends on the environment and requires existing heritable variation in a group. (Letter D)

4. Natural selection can be considered a mechanism of change since the suviving group will determine the caracteristics of the next generation. Moreover after several generations of selection, the population might be made up entirely different, according to the environment, the inheritage and improvement of the specie. (Letter B)

A and B

Explanation:

Darwin bred pigeons for many years and saw that occasionally some of the offspring would show new previously unseen traits. This was within the normal variation of the species, and some traits were useful while others were not, but the useful ones could be enhanced by "artificial selection" when the breeder carefully selected the parents that showed the traits that he wanted, some of the offspring could be expected to have those traits and the breeder would apply these selection criteria over the generations and thus great change could be achieved. Darwin thought that in nature, offspring would naturally be variable and that descent with modification could function as a process for speciation. Also, he noted that not all of the offspring survived, so just like the breeder, nature would select those individuals in the offspring that were better adapted and he thought that natural selection could be a mechanism for change.