To give an explanation of how living beings change over time, we would have to go back to the origin of species and evolution, a theory developed by Charles Darwin and disseminated through his work The Origin of Species (1859). In it, the British biologist describes how the living beings that inhabit the earth transform and adapt.
Darwin's studies show that evolution is a permanent process, where there is natural selection allowing the strongest to survive, causing differences that show the evolutionary process.
Living beings are represented by the variety of organisms that inhabit our planet, having in common a life cycle where they are born, grow, reproduce and die. In addition to fulfilling functions of nutrition, relationship and reproduction to stay alive.
The most common classification of living beings is that which groups them into five kingdoms. The animal, plant, fungi, protist and monera.
All species need food to live and when they cannot find it in their natural habitat, they move to other places or adapt their physical structure to new conditions.
Over time living things evolve, discarding parts of their bodies that are no longer useful or adding new forms to adapt to the environment.
It should be noted that these changes do not appear in a short time, but in many years of evolution.
Changes in living things over time
In animals
The theories of scientists suggest that mammals come from reptiles and these in turn from fish.
The first aquatic vertebrates that left the water and began to move on the land were amphibians, which through changes in their reproduction became reptiles.
The reptiles had to face changes in the temperature of their body giving way to mammals that have the ability to conserve body heat, allowing them to acclimatize to almost anywhere on the planet; the mole is underground, the chimpanzee is arboreal, the whales are aquatic and the bats are flying.
In plants
The origin of this species is given by small unicellular organisms that existed in the water and that through the transformation of carbon dioxide and water managed to build their food.
In this way, the first micro algae are presented in the seas, which are the ancestors of land plants.
When they got out of the water they needed to adapt to the earth and to its different temperatures, from there the mosses are born, which are the first plants with leaves; the ferns that are the first vascular plants, the conifers, that produce wood and those with flowers called angiosperms.
In the man
Studies show that modern man is the result of the evolution of primates. These, not getting food under the trees, needed to start standing up to reach the fruits that were at a great height.
From there it evolved to Australopithecus, which was similar in size to a gorilla and achieves a bipedal mark (two feet). Later it evolves into Homo Skillful due to the need to make stone elements to cut the meat of animals.
When looking for new places to explore and find food it was necessary to have an erect position that allowed him to walk and move with greater security, hence Homo erectus.
The archaic humans capable of communicating were called Homo neanderthal, which when facing climatic changes evolved into the so-called Homo sapiens that is the current man.
The evolution of living beings occurs through the search for food sources for survival.
Reference
- Botanica- online (sf). Obtained from botanical-online.com.
- Science channel (sf). Obtained from canaldeciencias.com.
- Universal history (2013). Obtained from historiacultural.com.
- History and Biographies (nd). Obtained from historiaybiografias.com.
- Marconi, R. (2009). Obtained from eco-sitio.com.ar.