Inheritance, Second Principle of Natural Selection
Inheritance is the second of the five principles of natural selection introduced by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species. While Darwin knew that inheritance plays a crucial role in natural selection, he was conflicted over how it works, noting –
“The laws governing inheritance are for the most part unknown.”
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. The five structural principles of natural selection are variation, inheritance, selection, time, and adaptation.
In 1837, nearly twenty years before publishing The Origin of Species, Darwin drew his first sketch linking inheritance to speciation (pictured left).
