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In a general way, evolution is described as the changes that have transformed life from its earliest origins into the diverse forms of life represented today. More specifically, the Scientific Theory of Evolution states that all living things share, at some point in their evolutionary history, a common ancestor. Evolution depicts life as a tree, with many branches arising from a single trunk. The tips of the branches represent present-day life forms. Each fork in the branch represents ancestors common to all lines arising after the split.
The idea of common ancestry has its roots in the Darwinian revolution. [[Charles Darwin]] (1809-1882)saw unity among all life, and he proposed that all living things are related and have descended from a common ancestor. Darwin describes these events as ''descent with modification''. The Darwinian explanation for the mechanisms of evolution is based on his theory of [[natural selection]], which in turn is based on five basic ideas:
# - Organisms will produce more [[offspring]] than their [[habitat]] can sustain. There will be a 'struggle to survive'.
# - Not all the offspring will be identical.
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# - Over time, these genetic variations will accumulate until a new [[species]] results.
Darwin’s Theory on Natural Selection laid the ground work for the evolutionary theory. However, it was the emergence of the field of [[Genetics]], pioneered by [[Gregor Mendel]](1822-1884, that provided the missing information on hereditary processes which now solidifies the Theory of Evolution. The mergence of Darwin’s ideas with our current understandings of heredity lead to the birth of [[Population Genetics]].
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