IMO STATE UNIVERSITY, OWERRI.

P.M.B 2000

A PRESENTATION
ON
DARWIN'S VIEWS ON ORIGIN OF LIFE.
PRESENTED BY
OGBUKA CHIKE FRANKLYN
MAT NO: 16/38029

SUBMITTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL &

ENVIRONMENTAL BIOLOGY

COURSE:
AEB 301 (TAXONOMY & EVOLUTION)

LECTURER:
PROFESSOR C. N. UKAGA

APRIL 2019.

For many ages till this moment, man, his origin, and the origin of other
organisms that exist and those extinct have been a question that has
lingered in the minds of men. Man has tried every possible means to
understand his origin in order to know his purpose. The question is "if he
was created" or "if he developed from a certain trait" has made it even a
glhard nut to crack.
Many scientists, great scholars, religious and tribes have tried in their
own system to explain the origin of man. One of them being "Charles
Darwin" and his postulations about the origin of man is known as
Darwinism. Darwin never in his quest to explain the origin of life
involved any form of divine consent as a causative for life and living
organisms.
Darwin's theory about the origin of life was focused mainly on the
evolution of species from w less distinct organism to a more advanced
and specialized organism which is capable of surviving perfectly in its
environment even more effectively than its predecessor or parents must
have survived in the same environment.
This theory he called the "theory of natural selection".
This theory was proposed in his writing on "The origin of species by
means of natural selections" which he made up after the observations he
made when he sailed with HMS Beagle to explore the South American
coast in 1831.
In his observations, he noticed that some organisms existed in any given
locality, and because of their morphological and functional differences,
they could produce offsprings which in turn could withstand the struggle
for existence and a consequent "survival of the fittest". This in turn
permitted a natural selection where the best advanced, fit and specialized
ones strived over the less advanced, weak and unspecialized ones in order
to keep the race benefitted and prepared for a new generation.
Charles Darwin's natural selection theory gave a little leap into evolution
because it stated that organisms with more advanced traits suitable for a
given environment such as developing a thick skin would enable it strive
in a cold and freezy environment and wouldn't be killed off by the day to
day activities in ice cold environments.
According to some scientists and publishers, there is no single Darwinism
theory of evolution as an origin of life.
Darwin's theory cuts out through from common, decent, gradualism,
multiplication of species and his famous Natural selection.
Also, Darwin upon his non-approvement of any work published on the
origin of life was ssgukl convinced that the ultimate relation of life with
the laws of spontaneous gebratuon was improbable. Though Darwin did
not accept the idea that putrifaction of preexisting organic compounds
could lead to the appearance of organisms rather he favoured that life
could appear by natural processes from simple organic compounds.
This belief was shown in his letter in 1871 in which he stated that 'it is
often said that all the conditions for the first production of a living being
are non present which could ever have been present. But if we could
conceive in some warm little pond with all sorts of ammonia and
phostoric acids, heat, light, electricity present, that a protein compound
was chemically formed ready to undergo more complex changes atbtge
present matter could be instantly be devoured or absorbed which would
not have been the case before living creatures were formed. In this view,
he sees inorganic matter as the precurifor origin of life if they were
exposed under perfect circumstances.
Darwin's view on the origin of life was only recorded or accounted for
on this letter to Hooker which has made certain scientist doubt Darwin
had any interest in origin of life itself rather than the orgin of species.