A Hike in the Jungle
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Current Step: Tree of Life
   
 

Let's say that a very large, magnificent Banyan tree looms into view as we hike over a ridge on our trail. Because the tree is a good distance away, we cannot discern all the individual branches.

This amazing tree offers a good model of the first of Darwin's two key hypotheses—the tree of life:

Theory of Evolution

Current Scientific Status

Darwin Hypothesis1
All living beings today are related through family trees that extend into the distant past.

Not controversial in the scientific community—a well-established hypothesis.

There is no major question about whether living beings have evolved from earlier forms.

Two kinds of evidence support this hypothesis:

  1. Arbitrary Similarity
  2. Imperfect Adaptation