Biological evolution, or evolution for short, is one of the most basic theories in biology. Evolution refers to the process of evolution and development, species elimination and species generation under the action of variation, heredity and natural selection. There is no life on the earth. Primitive life was formed about 3 billion years ago under certain conditions. Since then, organisms have evolved continuously, and today there are more than 6.5438+0.7 million species in the world. The theory of biological evolution was first put forward by charles robert darwin, and it was discussed in detail in his masterpiece The Origin of Species. There are three classical evidences of evolution: comparative anatomy, paleontology and the law of embryo development recurrence. It is the fruit of Darwin's unremitting efforts. The development of Darwin's thought of biological change and his view of nature on the mutual transformation and evolution of all things can be traced back to the early stage of human civilization. For example, the word "Zhou" in China I Ching has been said a lot. For example, some people think that Zhou means "everything is ready in Zhou Pu"; Some people think that Zhouyi refers to the Zhou Dynasty. The Zhou Dynasty was accepted by ordinary people, and many people thought that the word "Zhou" in Zhouyi was the name of the dynasty. The interpretation of the word "Yi" in Zhouyi is complicated. One said: "Yi is a word, from the day to the month, there are yin and yang." "Easy, the sun and the moon are also." "The moon is easy, quite soft." Say more >>

The theory of Yin-Yang Eight Diagrams in the Book classifies nature into eight basic phenomena: heaven, earth, thunder, wind, water, fire, mountains and ze, and tries to explain the complex changing laws of the material world with Yin-Yang Eight Diagrams. Anaximander, an ancient Greek (about 6th century BC), believed that life was originally produced by mud in the sea, and primitive aquatic creatures were transformed into terrestrial creatures through metamorphosis (similar to the molting of insect larvae).

In the Western Middle Ages, the Christian Bible described everything in the world as a special creation of God. This is called creationism. Teleology, accompanied by creationism, holds that the arrangement of nature has a purpose. "Cats are created to eat mice, mice are created to eat cats, and the whole nature is created to prove the wisdom of the creator."

From the Renaissance in the second half of the15th century to the18th century, modern natural science was formed and developed. The dominant view of the scientific community in this period is invariance. At that time, this view was expressed by I Newton and C·V· Linnaeus as a scientific law: the earth moves because of the so-called first driving force, and then moves forever. Biological species were like this before, now and in the future.

/kloc-in the second half of the 0/8th century, my Kant's celestial theory first opened the first gap in the unchanging view of nature; Subsequently, the natural view of transformation theory gradually formed in various fields of natural science. Some biologists in this period were often confused between the two concepts. For example, in his later years, Linnaeus deleted the word species invariance in his book Natural Systems. G .-l. d. e. Buffon, a French biologist, brought transformation theory into biology, but he lingered between transformation theory and invariance theory all his life. J.-B.D.E. Lamarck expounded his views on biotransformation in the book Animal Philosophy published in 1809, and never wavered.

From the end of 18 to the end of 19, most zoologists did not seriously study biological evolution, deviated from the ancient Greek materialism tradition and fell into idealism. Although the "vitality theory" admits that biological species can be transformed, it attributes the cause of evolution to immaterial internal forces, and holds that the "internal forces" of organisms, that is, vitality, drive the evolution of organisms, making them more and more complex and perfect. However, the theory of vitality lacks practical evidence and is an idealistic speculation. The most famous vitalist is the French biologist Lamarck. /kloc-the ultimate teleology or direct birth theory, which appeared in the late 0/9th century, holds that no matter how the external environment changes, biological evolution has an established route and direction.

Later generations called Lamarckian's viewpoint of biological evolution Lamarckianism or Lamarckianism. Its main points are as follows:

1) Species are variable, and species are a group of individuals with variation.

2) The creatures in nature have a series of grades (steps) from simple to complex, and the creatures themselves have an inherent "willpower" to drive the creatures to develop and change from low to high.

3) The organism has strong adaptability to the environment; Environmental changes will cause biological changes, thus improving its adaptability; The diversification of environment is the fundamental reason of biodiversity.

4) The change of environment will cause the change of animal habits, and the change of habits will make some organs develop with frequent use, while others will degenerate without use; Directional variation under the influence of environment, that is, acquired traits, can be inherited. If the environment changes in a certain direction, due to the use of organs and acquired inheritance, tiny variations gradually accumulate and eventually organisms evolve. The inner will in Lamarckian theory is idealistic; Acquired is mostly phenotypic variation, and modern genetics has proved that it cannot be inherited.