Variation, First Principle of Evolution
Variation is the first of the five principles of natural selection, abbreviated as VISTA. Niles Eldredge, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, formulated the acronym to understand Darwin’s theory of evolution.
For the museum’s Darwin exhibit, Eldridge uses the acronym to explain how the principles of variation, inheritance, selection, time, and adaptation drive natural selection. Variation is the first principle of Charles Darwin’s concept of natural selection.
Variations play a pivotal role in driving Darwin’s theory of evolution; heritable variations are a prerequisite for evolutionary change. In the sixth edition of The Origin of Species, while “natural selection” appears 408 times, the term “variations” appears 303 times.
