Paraphrase answers that correspond with their question make sure its is not the same to the orginal.

Darwin published his book the Origin of Species in 1859, during a time in Victorian England where some found his views to be relatively shocking. Read the section on p. 272 Big Idea 1: “The Tree of Life…” to find out why and answer the following in the canvas discussion.

1. Why was the idea of life as a tree so controversial during Darwin’s time?
   1. This was so controversial because it asserted that all life came from a common ancestor. Many were very religious during the time and saw this as an affront to traditional principles of Creationism and conflicting with the idea that God created humans (rather than God created a common ancestor and humans evolved from that).
2. How does the tree of life support Darwin’s theory that all life on Earth is descended from a common ancestor?
   1. The tree of life supports Darwin’s theory because it indicates that “all life on Earth can be traced to a single ancestor” and that can be supported by fossil evidence. The tree indicates that each species, no matter how different, shares a common ancestor that they branched from in history, then an ancestor that those ancestors branched from, etc. until one can derive the source of life to a singular species that is very simple in form and took millions of years to evolve.

Darwin wrote about the variations in finches when he first encountered them on the Galapagos Islands. But what were the underlying molecular mechanisms underlying these differences? Read the section on p. 308-309 Big Idea 1: “Genetic Basis of Beak Shape in Darwin’s Finches” and answer the following:

1. How might have small, or microevolutionary, changes in BMP4 and CaM in finch populations resulted in new species of finch?
   1. Small, microevolutionary changes cause for animals to be selected from the population specifically; as one beak shaped finch selects the similar one, it can naturally select a portion of the population and gene pool to replicate, and the other changed or altered beak shaped finches may not be chosen. This can isolate portions of the population, segregating them and causing their micropopulations to select one another, alter genes, and result in new species of finch.
2. Use Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection to explain the match between finch beak shape and diet on the Galapagos Islands.
   1. Natural selection favors certain traits over another that increase a population’s fitness. The finch beak indicates what food the finch can have more access to or be able to eat; the changes in food will cause a change in beak shape, and as they naturally select certain shapes of beaks depending on the food source, the diet and finch beak contain a direct relationship that depends on one another evolutionarily.