Do you have a burning question about Darwin, evolution, natural selection and the Origin of Species?
Thank you to everyone who sent in a question to our expert Professor Anthony K. Campbell. Prof Campbell has answered a selection below:
Q1-Q4 | Q5-Q8 | Q9-Q12 | Q13-Q16 | Q17-Q20 | Q21-Q24Prof Campbell: The key is the ability of a population of organisms to adapt to environmental and other changes. So global warming will be major issue for us over the coming centuries.
Question 2
If we evolved from apes how come there are humans and apes but nothing in between?
Prof Campbell: The issue of missing links is an old problem, and one that Darwin himself addressed in The Origin of Species. The reason is that the fossil record is but a tiny fraction of all the organisms that have existed on the Earth over the past 3800 million years. At present there are some 6000 million humans living. In a million years time perhaps just a few hundred fossils will be found. This wouldn't even be enough to tell how many different ethnic groups there were, let alone look for 'missing links'.
Question 3
Where are the intermediate fossils that show evolution between species?
Prof Campbell: Follow the herring gull around the world and it turns into a lesser black backed gull. Look at a meadow full of orchids and you will find, as Darwin did, many hybrids. But in the fossil record only a tine number will be preserved, insufficient to see the wide variation within a population at any given time.
Question 4
According to Darwin's theory of evolution all life evolved from single-celled organisms. There must have been a split-second point between there being no life in the universe and the first living thing. How does his theory explain the very first living thing?
Prof Campbell: The one thing Darwin said in The Origin of Species he would not deal with is the origin of life. Some believe it is cosmic. i.e. it originated in space – the so-called panspermia hypothesis. Natural selection explains the development and evolution of life on Earth, but it doesn't explain the origin of life.
