Darwinism

Darwinism is the theory that species evolve through natural selection, independently developed by Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. It explains adaptation as the differential survival and reproduction of heritable variations.

Natural selection: The process by which heritable traits become more or less common because they affect survival or reproduction. It is the central process Darwinism uses to explain adaptation.
Charles Darwin: The English naturalist who developed evolution by natural selection and wrote On the Origin of Species. His research and published argument made Darwinism widely known.
Lamarckism: A theory of evolution in which organisms acquire traits during life and transmit them to offspring. Darwinian selection acts on inherited variation rather than relying on use and disuse to create adaptations.
Modern synthesis: A twentieth-century framework joining Darwinian natural selection with Mendelian genetics and population biology. It reconciled Darwin's mechanism with a genetic account of inheritance and variation.
Heritability: The proportion of variation in a trait within a population associated with genetic differences. Selection can produce lasting change only when relevant differences pass between generations.
Alfred Russel Wallace: The British naturalist who independently conceived evolution by natural selection. His 1858 essay prompted the joint announcement of the theory with Darwin.
Theistic evolution: The view that evolutionary processes are compatible with divine creation or providence. It accepts evolution while adding theological claims absent from Darwin's biological mechanism.
Evolutionary biology: The biological discipline that studies the origins, processes, and patterns of evolutionary change. Darwinism became a foundation of the broader scientific study of evolution.
Genetic variation: Differences in DNA sequences among individuals in a population. Selection requires differences among organisms on which reproductive success can act.
On the Origin of Species: Charles Darwin's 1859 book arguing that species evolve and natural selection drives adaptation. It gave Darwinism its first sustained public exposition.

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