Tuyển tập các báo cáo nghiên cứu về sinh học được đăng trên tạp chí sinh học Journal of Biology đề tài: Q&A: What did Charles Darwin prove. | Journal of Biology BioMed Central Question Answer Q A What did Charles Darwin prove Paul Harvey It is often said that Darwin s theory of natural selection is unprOven - True I don t think that is a very useful question because Darwin s strength comes not so much from what he proved but from the near-inescapable conclusions that he led us to. He used every means of informing himself about questions that interested him. He is known for his massive and continuous correspondence always asking pertinent questions of those studying what we should now call model systems or model organisms. Of course he was also a great natural historian himself so his own observations pervade his writings. He was then able to integrate observations from one species into a prototype for what we now call the comparative method - he looked across species and showed how similar environments resulted in the development of similar adaptations. When making crossspecies comparisons it is important to distinguish between similarity through inheritance from a common ancestor and similarity through independent evolutionary origins. But isn t the comparative method that uses inference from independent evolutionary origins a recent development Yes many of us have made a big deal of developing and applying new Paul Harvey Department of Zoology University of Oxford The Tinbergen Building South Parks Road Oxford OX1 3PS UK. Email statistical methods but Darwin was on to the problem. He just did not use statistics and probabilities which is why I call his method a prototype. For example he noted that a higher proportion of tree species compared with other plants in Great Britain have male and female flower structures on separate plants. But he went further and showed that this pattern of predominance occurs within many families of trees. Since there is variation within the families he knew he was not dealing with a single evolutionary event with subsequent inheritance from an .
