Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Evidence for evolution from biogeography. When biologists say the evidence for evolution is overwhelming they are not making things up.

biogeography: the branch of biology that deals with the geographical distribution of plants and animals.

How is biogeography used as evidence for evolution?

Biogeography is the study of the distribution of life forms over geographical areas. Biogeography not only provides significant inferential evidence for evolution and common descent, but it also provides what creationists like to deny is possible in evolution: testable predictions.

How biogeography is used to support the theory of evolution?

Other evidence in support of evolution comes from biogeography, which is how species are distributed across Earth. This is what first suggested to Charles Darwin that species evolve from a common ancestor.

Wikipedia is my friend - Wikipedia - Biogeography:

Charles Darwin was a natural theologist who studied around the world, and most importantly in the Galapagos Islands. Darwin introduced the idea of natural selection, as he theorized against previously accepted ideas that species were static or unchanging. His contributions to biogeography and the theory of evolution were different from those of other explorers of his time, because he developed a mechanism to describe the ways that species changed. His influential ideas include the development of theories regarding the struggle for existence and natural selection. Darwin’s theories started a biological segment to biogeography and empirical studies, which enabled future scientists to develop ideas about the geographical distribution of organisms around the globe.[8]

Wikipedia - Evidence of common descent

Further evidence comes from the field of biogeography because evolution with common descent provides the best and most thorough explanation for a variety of facts concerning the geographical distribution of plants and animals across the world. This is especially obvious in the field of insular biogeography. Combined with the well-established geological theory of plate tectonics, common descent provides a way to combine facts about the current distribution of species with evidence from the fossil record to provide a logically consistent explanation of how the distribution of living organisms has changed over time.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.