Variation, First Principle of Natural Selection
Variation is the first of the five principles of natural selection introduced by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species. Darwin wrote –
“Natural Selection acts exclusively by the preservation and accumulation of variations,”
Niles Eldredge, of the American Museum of Natural History, introduced the V.I.S.T.A. framework to codify the principles of Darwin’s theory. Encapsulating Darwin’s five structural principles of natural selection are variation, inheritance, selection, time, and adaptation.
