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neither statement is true.

If it is a fact, please correct me by providing specific examples of the fact of evolution. It is important to note that evolution (meaning the process of speciation from non-like ancestors, descent with modification as Darwin described it) has never been observed, only surmised.

Natural selection is not the sole mechanism for evolution according to Darwin (or any other subsequent evolutionary theorist.). Darwin himself states this in the introduction to the 1859 edition of The Origin of the Species "I am convinced that natural selection has been the main but not the exclusive means of modification.". The crucial point is that natural selection must work in conjunction with random genetic mutation (Darwin's 'modification'). This is what Darwin uniquely offered - a random means by which this random variation may be propagated throughout a population.

In a very broad sense, the concept of evolution had been put forth by many writers. The first was unquestionably Anaximander with Aristotle and Xenophanes also developing ideas to account for biodiversity. John Ray was the first to promote the idea of descent with modification. Several writers weighed in with similar ideas in the last few generations before Darwin, including de Buffon, Linneaus and Bonnet. But it was Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis who introduced the concept most akin to natural selection, survival of the fittest. However, Darwin was most directly influenced by the writings of Lamarck and his own grandfather, Erasmus Darwin. Both of these writers offered forms of sexual selection as the mechanism for promulgating variation.

Again, Darwin's unique contribution was a citing a random processes as the formal causes of both aspects of evolution . The age of enlightenment and modernity was ripe for the reception of an explanation that accounted for biodiverity without involving the supernatural and this is what Darwin provided.

Thanks,
Rob



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