Natural selection is the process by which individuals that are better adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce than other members of the same species are. Darwin identified a number of factors that affect the process of natural selection: overproduction, competition, and variations. Darwin's theory was of evolution. In 1858, Darwin and another British biologist, Alfred Russel Wallace, proposed an explanation on how evolution occurs. Darwin explained that evolution occurs by means of natural selection.
Darwin was surprised that many of the plants and animals on the Galapagos Islands were similar to organisms on mainland South America. For example, many of the birds on the islands, including hawks, mocking birds, and finches, resembled those on the mainland. From Darwin's observations, Darwin inferred that a small number of different plant and animal species had come to the Galapagos Islands from the storm or set adrift on a fallen log. The......
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