Summary

Through a cartoon demonstration, this video explains Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. The video highlights Darwin’s four conditions of natural selection using giraffes as the primary example. Through this video, we learn about the key roles population variance, reproduction, and inheritance play in both evolution and natural selection.

Why watch this video?

• Have you ever wondered what conditions are needed for natural selection to occur?

• Would you like to know how Charles Darwin came up with his theory of evolution?

• Have you ever been confused by the topic of inheritance or natural selection?

Key terms

Natural Selection – A process where organisms with more favorable traits have a higher chance of reproducing.

Variant Traits – Differing characteristics of an organism in a population.

Inheritance – Characteristics that are passed from the parent on to its offspring.

Loose ends

• How fast can evolution occur? The video does not specify how quickly or how slowly evolution can occur. Evolution is an ongoing process, and to make a new species from an old one, it can take millions of years. Changes in the frequency of individual traits within a species can occur more rapidly, even over the span of decades as with the peppered moth. The frequency of peppered moth individuals with darker colour increased as pollution from coal burning increased in the nineteenth century.

• Why do individuals in a population differ? The video states that this is the first of Darwin’s conditions that must be meant in regards to natural selection. However, the video neglects to explain why there are variant traits in a species. It is because of random mutations in the genetic material of individuals.

• The video also does not demonstrate any other species besides giraffes in their example for natural selection. This could result in students thinking that natural selection only occurs in animal organisms, when in reality, it can occur in all living things.

Self-Test Questions