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Question
Why was it helpful to Darwin to learn that Lyell thought the earth was very old?
Options
An old earth has more fossils than a new earth
It meant there was enough time for evolution to have occurred slowly
Darwin said that natural selection occurred slowly
Evolution doesn’t occur without upheavals
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Solution
It meant there was enough time for evolution to have occurred slowly
Explanation:
Lyell’s idea that the Earth is very old helped Darwin by providing a long time scale necessary for slow processes like natural selection and evolution to produce significant changes in species over many generations. Without an old Earth, Darwin’s theory of gradual evolutionary change would not have been plausible. This is supported by the ideas of Lyell and Hutton on Earth’s age and gradual geological processes that Darwin incorporated into his theory of evolution.
