EVOLUTION: EXPLAINING VARIABILITY

Pre-19th Century Operating Assumptions Creationism Relative Youth of the Earth James Ussher (1581-1656) - biblical records to calculate beginning of the world 4004 BC Permanence of the Earths Physical structure Permanence of Living Things Two scientists used physical attributes to create a taxonomy of plants and animals: John Ray (1626-1705) and Carolus (von Linn) Linnaeus (1707-1778) Systema Natura (1735) - both believed that species were immutable (unchanged over time) Continuation of these views into the 19th Century Christianity and Nature Argument from Design William Paleys Natural Theology (1802) watchmaker analogy (see also Shermer article) The study of humans at this point (precursors of anthropology) Primary Scientists Responsible for the Emergence of Evolutionary Theory Geology James Hutton (1726-1797) and Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Lyells Principles of Geology (1830) Antiquity of the Earth Environmental Change Uniformitarianism Paleontology George Cuvier (1769-1832) Variation and Change in Fossil Record Catastrophism (1796) Thomas Malthus (1766-1834) Demography ( An Essay of the Principles of Population, 1798) Noted a struggle for survival Had a social agenda Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) Environmental change affects organisms Progressivism/Lamarckism (1809) Acquired traits are inherited Charles Darwin (1809-1882) 1831 Beagle Realized that variation that occurred was random (could not be solicited) Saw that with domesticated animals farmers could cause change over time with selective breeding of the variants (but, he first wondered, what about naturally?)

 Theory of Natural Selection - Survival and reproduction of the fittest (Origin of Species, 1859) 1. The environment is constantly changing 2. Variation occurs randomly and without solicitation 3. There is a struggle for survival 4. Those with more adaptive variations will differentially survive and reproduce. 5. Although the changes are minute, over a long period the changes will accumulate to become significant Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) came up with similar idea to Darwin's and wrote him in 1858 (the letter was published with Darwin's views) -- didn't have good evidence because his collections were destroyed in a fire FACTORS INFLUENCING DARWINS THOUGHTS 1. The social environment on the Beagle Captain Fitzroy and Argument from Design 2. Saw evidence of change in physical and natural world Fossils in South America Earthquake 3. Saw tremendous variation in nature Galapagos Islands 4. Realized that variation was random (could not be solicited) Domesticated animals and selective breeding (only with sexual reproduction) Works with domestication, but what about naturally? 5. Thomas Malthus work Peppered Moth example Finch example adaptive radiation (common stem or ancestor, species fill new habitats) Evolutionary Synthesis/Why Darwin waited so long to publish his work? 1. Darwin's views were very controversial and went against religious teachings. The highest possible stage in moral culture is when we recognize that we ought to control our thoughts. Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, ch. 4 (1871). 2. Darwin didn't know where variation came from. Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945) answered with his microscopic studies on chromosomes (genetic material) and mutation (genetic change) 3. Darwin didn't understand how variation was inherited and the concepts of gemmules and blending inheritance were not explaining his observations Mendelian, molecular and population genetics filled in this gap. PostScript 1871 Darwins Descent of Man Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-1895) Darwins Bulldog