He didn't need to explain on the molecular level how organims change over time just that they do. So, now we know that it is caused by variation in DNA, organisms still adapt to different environemts if the adaptation exists in the population.
Isn't punctuated equi. when a large population experiences a decrease in the number of organisms in a population able to pass on genetic info. so they have changed, like a bottle neck, my science is a little rusty.
I need to do a little reviewing
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Originally Posted by u ne la nv i u we tsi
Darwin's uncle did seem to have some ideas on a kind of evolution, but never really discussed it enough to know if he had really any ideas on the process that caused it. But he was definitely not the first person to think in those terms. There were people even in times before Christ that believed that simpler life changed over along period of time into more complex life but never really had theories on how.
Darwin believed that evolution happened while populations were large, but this has come into question with punctuated equilibrium theory which believes that evolution occurs faster in smaller isolated populations. Darwin also did not suggest an idea of mutation as the main cause of variation that natural selection acts upon and some of his ideas on how life could become varied were wrong. New mechanism for evolution are being purposed understood as time goes on and evolutionary theory is still be refined today. Some of the mechanisms are very well studied and others are a little more speculative. But many of them are based on details that Darwin could not possibly have known back in his time.
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