From the beginning of time, life on earth has evolved in a variety of beneficial
ways, not only in humans, but also in nature. The Earth would not be as beneficial if we
didn’t have the evolution of certain living things such as humans. Natural selection is
the process of which, a species is chosen to survive based on its characteristic traits.
The term “survival of the fittest” comes from natural selection. It promotes the idea of
species with beneficial traits survive while the species without those traits don’t survive.
Therefore natural selection is selective in organisms that fit the adaptation of the
environment.
Most traits of evolution are envisioned as simple traits such as a longer neck or a
different color of fur. However, the octopus acquired a more complicated system of
natural selection traits. The octopus descended from the Nautilus cephalopod, which
has an external shell. Once other animals were able to break through the cephalopods’
shell, the Nautilus had to evolve to lose its shell and become mobile. In order to survive,
the shelled cephalopod had to evolve to efficiently swim away from predators. At last,
the shell was removed and thus created the eight legged octopus. The loss of its shell,
required the need of a defense mechanism. In addition to swimming away from
predators, these animals developed the ability to change color and shape; not only to
catch prey but to hide from predators. The evolution of the octopus shows that evolution
does exist and that despite the creationists opinions, they still decide to not look past
their beliefs, based on their religious background.