Evolutionary ideas of the Renaissance and Enlightenment

Okay kiddo, have you ever heard of the Renaissance and Enlightenment period? They were times when many smart people started to think differently about how the world works. One of the topics they thought about was the idea of evolution, or how living things change over time.

In the Renaissance, some people like Leonardo da Vinci, thought that living things could change and evolve based on their environment. They also believed that certain traits could be passed down from parents to their babies.

Then during the Enlightenment period, a scientist named Charles Darwin discovered even more about how evolution works. He realized that living things change over time because of a process called natural selection. This means that animals with traits that are helpful for their environment are more likely to survive and have babies. Over many years, this can lead to big changes in a species.

So basically, during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, people started to realize that animals can change and evolve over time, and this process is called evolution. And it was all thanks to smart people like da Vinci and Darwin who took the time to observe and think about the world around them.