Genesis Chapter 1 Evolution and Revolution Page 1

Evolutionary Theory: the natural world is steadily changing; organisms have diverged common
ancestors and they have been transformed over geological time
Charles Darwin convinced the scientific world of evolution in the 19th century

Two World Views
Archbishop James Ussher (17th century): calculated the origin of creation to the year 4004 BC
Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788): French naturalist who estimated that
the earth was about 75000 years old and that plants/animals arose about 37000 years ago
Scientists Today:
Universe is 10-20 billion years old
Earth is around 4.5 billion years old
life arose about 3.5 billion years ago (hominids arose 4 millions years ago, homo sapiens
arose about 130000 years ago)
Traditional natural theology held the world to be static - God had formed all species just as
they appear today with no genealogical relationship between them
Ancient Greek philosophers: there were great cataclysms (i.e.. a Biblical flood in which Noah
had saved all the species)
Aristotelian and Platonic view: life forms were ordered in single file, from the most simple
inanimate objects to plants to animals (fixed plan of creation)
Known as Scala Naturae (Great Chain of Being) in which the increasing perfection was
understood in terms of different kinds of soul (more reason and a greater advance toward
God)
In contrast to scala naturae, evolutionary theory holds that all life is related and genealogical
relations dont resemble a chain/ladder, but a tree
Teleology: view that organisms and their natural relations can only be explained by purpose
and by design
Darwinian Evolutionary Theory: theres no design/preconceived plan in the natural world, and
organisms evolve in a makeshift contingent on ecological conditions
Nothing is necessary or purposeful (if there were different conditions, there would be a
different world)
Puts humans in nature as members of the animal kingdom
Judeo-Christian Theology: places humans outside and above nature - we are created in the
image of God
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1776-1837): most prominent pre-Darwinian evolutionist
Coined the term biology for the study of the manifestations of life and the conditions and
laws under which it occurs

Revolution to Evolution
Before the Revolution, French society was a static hierarchy from birth
Structure disturbed by the uprising of peasants, artisans, and the middle class until Napoleon
Bonaparte seized control and become emperor of France (signalling the end of the
Revolution)
Robert Grant: the first to use the word evolution
During the Reign of Terror, the Jardin du Roi (where Lamarck was a botanist), was
reorganized into a museum, where he was given a job as a zoologist
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He worked in the classification of animals without vertebrae which he named
invertebrates
their study led him to explore questions about causes of life processes and evolution
Three convergent interests led Lamarck to evolution:
1. his thinking on what constituted the essence of life in the simplest organisms (caloric heat
and electricity)
2. his view of the natural way to arrange taxa
3. his geological thinking (i.e. gradual change over long periods of time)

Lamarckian Myths
Two myths about Lamarck:
1. he is a romantic genius who was isolated and ignored by his contemporaries but
rediscovered in the late 19th century
2. someone who unsuccessfully tried to tackle the problems of adaptation and the origin of
species before Darwin
Historians emphasize that Lamarck was not a precursor of Darwin
Biologists remember him for having originated a mechanism of evolutionary change (based on
the inheritance of acquired characteristics) that contradicted Darwin
Lamarcks mechanism stated the the characteristics an organism acquires in their lifetime
may be passed on to subsequent generations
Some of these characteristics may be a direct response to some external change in the
environment while other may come from use/disuse of a part
Its wrong to attribute this view to Lamarck because the idea didnt originate with him (it can
be traced back to Hippocratic writers). Even before Lamarck, Darwins grandfather Erasmus
had used it as the basis of his own theory of evolution. Darwin also held the idea of
inheritance of acquired characteristics (many evolutionists at the time did). Inheritance of
acquired characteristics was only one part of his theory
Lamarck thought that the environment might bring about heritable changes in several ways
Ridicule of him was often said to be due to the unclear ways by which he expressed his ideas
He often seemed to believe that evolution was based on the desire of the animal but what
he really meant was that the animals habits impacted evolution

Simple to Complex
Lamarck arranged life forms by ordering the great classes of life in a linear, graded series
toward perfection (from simple to complex)
He recognized that there were genera and species that branched off and he said that this
deviation from the linear order was due to the influence of certain environmental
circumstances
inheritance of acquired characteristics would account for the characters of organisms that
distinguished genera and species, as well as their instincts and habits
The general trend in evolution towards increasing complexity was due to an unknown inner
force in nature which he referred to as the power of life
He opposed notions about the extinction of species and argued that organisms resembling
strange fossil can still be found somewhere on earth
Naturalists who believed in the fixity of a species believed that the structure of an animal is
perfectly fit for their functions and that the structure of a part determined its function
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Lamarck believed that new functions/habits brought about by needs led to changed
structures and irregularities in the line from simple to complex
George Louis Buffon: studied living organisms and their characteristics in life; also adopted a
theory of evolution according to which a few original types of animals developed and evolved
into the animals we see today via hybridization and environmental influences
Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778): had similar views to Buffon; created the binomial system for
naming organisms
Lamarcks theory was not well supported by the fossil record
often whole species appeared suddenly which went against Lamarcks theory of gradual
evolution (lack of evidence of a transitional form)

Disconnecting the Unity of Life
Georges Cuvier: a professor of natural history at College de France
he was Lamarcks main antagonist
he is famous for being able to identify many characteristics about an animal just by looking
at its tooth
Cuvier was a fixist (the view that species alive today are identical to ancient ones)
Lamarck on the other hand was an evolutionist
Cuvier had a reputation of solid methodology and observation; he was well regarded by
Napoleon
Cuvier claimed that there were 4 distinct and unrelated divisions of animals: vertebrates,
mollusks, articulates (annelids, arthropods), and radiates (starfish, coral, jellyfish)
these divisions were determined by the animals internal anatomy, which Cuvier believed
had been designed by the Creator to suit the animals certain functional needs
Cuvier believed that the history of life on earth was marked by major catastrophes and mass
extinctions (of which the last was the biblical flood)
there were breaks in geological time and complete breaks in life on Earth (he saw no
connection between early animals and animals today)
when catastrophe wiped out animals in a certain area, animals from other species would
migrate in and invade that area (animals don't evolve, preexisting species from other areas
move in)
Flaw: if there was many catastrophes, species number would have declined instead of
increased
some of Cuviers followers developed a solution: there wasnt just one divine creation, they
occurred after each catastrophe
Lamarck eventually realized his linear model didnt reflect nature
Lamarck died in 1829 after he became completely blind in 1818

The Cuvier-Geoffroy Debate
Etienne Geoffroy: professor of zoology; antagonist of Cuvier
follower of Lamarck
Evolution was positioned in direct opposition to the privileges of nobility and the church and
against the conservations and new professional social control of science in France
The Cuvier/Geoffroy debate centred on two opposing approached to comparative anatomy:
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1. Cuvier was a functionalist and thought that every part of an animal was designed by a
Creator to contribute to the animals functional integrity (function dictates structure)
2. Geoffroy believed that structure dictates function. He developed a
transcendental/philosophical anatomy that centred of the concept that all animals had a
structural plan to suit their functions. This structural plan precedes any
modification/adaptations (i.e. all vertebrates have the same basic structural plan, and are all
modifications of the same being called the vertebrate animal)
Geoffroys structuralism became the basis for determining homologous structures
homology: traits inherited by two different organisms from a common ancestor (similar in
function and origin)
analogy: similarity due to convergent evolution, not a common ancestor (similar in function
but not origin)