Had Darwin been aware of Mendel’s work, would he been able to explain the origin of variations. Discuss.

Even though Mendel (Commonly called as Father of Genetics) had talked of inheritable 'factors' influencing phenotype Darwin either ignored these observations or kept silence.

Darwin would have been able to explain the origin of variations.

He asserted that variations, which are heritable and which make resource utilisation better for few (adapted to habitat better) will enable only those to reproduce and leave more progeny.

Though Darwinism explains survival of the fittest but does not explain mode of arrival of the fittest.

So he did not explained any particulate substance for inheritance of continuous useful variations from one generation to the next.

But Mendel explained inheritance of characters is particulate an ever character is controlled by a pair factors (now called as Alleles).

So if Darwin was aware of Mendelism he could have been able to explain the origin of variations. And there inheritance.