Evidence of evolution.

Eduardo Limas Garca

Evolutionis an everyday word, but as many other words that we use in our routine, it has
a background meaning. Nowadays, evolution has a scientific use and meaning. Daily, we use

Evolution as change or transformation, that is a correct meaning, nevertheless evolution could have
another semantic content, we use to refer some sentences in the implement of this word, like:
changes are for good, there's a reason for any cause or change is an opportunity to
progress. Seems like the way that we use this word is for things that change with a purpose,
destination or a final cause. In science, evolution is used to describe a phenomenon who pass
over some stages each one with distinctive characteristics. There is a totally different notion of
evolution between the common and the scientific use.
Focusing in biology, evolution is a concept that explains the diversity and vastity of organic
entities and their changes over time. Evolution is the most important word in biology. There is not
a single why? Question in biology that can be answered adequately without a consideration of
evolution.1 Following this sentence of Ernst Mayr, Evolution provide the raw materia for the
biology science. As Coyne affirm evolution means that a species undergoes genetic change over
time.2
One primary observation: the nature are diverse: the first fact that we can assume while
watching the nature is the diversity of the biotic elements. When we observed a new group of
newborn puppys, we can refer that not a single puppy is hundred percent equal to another, also it is
easy to see that the puppys characteristics are a mixture of the parents. As this example, we can
extrapolate to any organism who has some reproduction system. Also between species, we can refer
similarity or some resemblance. This divergence and similarity inferences are the principal mental
process in the evolutionary scientist mind.
Imagine that you find a piece of an old photograph, the color of the paper seems yellow and
the image it is not completely clear, but it is a face visible. There is no doubt that this photograph
1

MAYR Ernst, What evolution is, Phoenix papperback, Great Britain, 2001 pp. XIV
COYNE Jerry A. , Why evolution is true, Oxford University Press, 2009, pp 3

has been taken from the past. The primal reaction is to search the relation that the person from the
photograph has with you and your family Is this person genealogical related to me?. We have to
watch closely the characteristics and match with some emblematic characteristics of any member of
you family. Maybe this person could have a similar nose as your grandfather, etc. This analogy is
compared with the existence of fossils. When a paleontologist found a fossil they start comparing
and relate (or unrelate) a dominant trait to another similar organism. The evolutionary thinking is
related to compare and discard the characteristics of organisms.
The best evidence of evolution is the fossil record because their existence only makes sense
by the evolutionary theory's mechanisms of variability (for example natural selection, sexual
selection, mutations, etc.) A fossil is like an ancient photography, it capsule a period and across our
observations, the scientist refer genealogical. The most convincing evidence for the occurrence of
evolution is the discovery of extinct organisms in older geological strata.3
Also proves that those phenomenons are only consider as changing things, because if is not
this way, we could not explain processes like extinction. Without the existence of fossils we could
assume that the living things doesn't change so obviously it was probably find a T-rex down the
corner nowadays. As Stephen Jay Gould afirms, one of the facts that makes the evolution a natural
fact are the observational transitions are often found in the fossil record.4
The fossil record give us the fact that other older organisms has lived thousands of centuries
ago. These two facts makes the fossil record an irrefutable evidence about the changes in living
organisms. A fossil like that older piece of photograph, is . What a evolutionary scientist do is infer,
question and search the relation or un-relation of a trait.

Bibliography:
COYNE Jerry A. , Why evolution is true, Oxford University Press, 2009
GOULD Stephen Jay, Dientes de gallina y dedos de caballo Reflexiones sobre la historia natural , Cr
tica Barcelona Espaa, 2008
3

MAYR Ernst, What evolution is, Phoenix papperback, Great Britain 2001 pp. 14
GOULD Sephen Jay, Dientes de gallina y dedos de caballo, Crtica, Barcelona, pp 285 (tr. Author)

La evolucion como hecho y como teoria, pp. 279-289

MAYR Ernst, What evolution is, Phoenix papperback Perseus book corp, Great Britain, 2001