Inheritance, Second Principle of Evolution
Inheritance is the second 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. Inheritance is the second principle of Charles Darwin’s concept of natural selection.
In 1837, nearly twenty years before publishing The Origin of Species, Darwin drew his first sketch linking species by inheritance (pictured left).
Knowing Darwin’s mechanisms of inheritance is essential for understanding his theory since inheritance plays a “chief part” in natural selection. As Darwin explains in The Origin of Species –
“The most important consideration is that the chief part of the organisation of every being is simply due to inheritance.”
