Darwinian Revolution

The arrival of the Origin changed man’s world. Darwin was not the first to
present a theory of “evolution”; but never before had such a theory had such convincing
impact. At once, it was seen to have implications far beyond biology. It struck at beliefs
and behaviours from the most trivial to the most profound. Consequently, as might be
expected, Darwin, his work, and the whole series of ideas and events leading up to and
away from the Origin—a series commonly known as the “Darwinian Revolution”—have
been written about in depth and at length.

What influenced Darwin's ideas about species?

 Darwin's grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, published one of the first formal scientific
theories of evolution, Zoonomia, or, The Laws of Organic Life, in the 1790s.
Zoonomia; or the Laws of Organic Life is a two-volume medical work by
Erasmus Darwin that deals with pathology, anatomy, psychology, and the
functioning of the body. He had proclaimed the common ancestry of all animal
species.

 One of Erasmus Darwin's contemporaries, Georges Cuvier, wrote on comparative

anatomy and physiology and first established the concept of extinction.
Cuvier realized it’s not possible to have a linear system of classification that put
all species on a spectrum of very simple to the most complex humans. Cuvier’s
idea that there was more than one lineage for species helped shape Darwin's views
of natural selection.

 During the 5-year surveying mission in which Darwin served aboard the Royal
Navy Brig HMS Beagle as a naturalist, he became intrigued by Charles Lyell's
Principles of Geology.
In Principles of Geology, Lyell presents arguments in support of
uniformitarianism, the theory that observable processes occurring in the present
are sufficient to explain the formation of all geological features over great time
periods. Uniformitarianism says that the present is the key to the past.
 Departing the coast of South America, the Beagle arrived at the Galapagos
Islands, where Darwin would make his most famous observations of species,
including the 14 or so closely related species of finches now commonly referred
to as Darwin's finches.
Just four of the Galapagos Islands finch species that Darwin observed, described
and drew. He pondered the great range in bill type among these species; Geospiza
magnirostris, Gospiza fortis, Geospiza parvula, and Certhidea olivacea

Darwin’s Five Theories

1. Evolution per se
-the world is constantly changing and populations of organisms are transformed
over time.
2. Common Descent
-each group of organisms has descended from a common ancestor.
-all species can be traced to a single origin of life on Earth.
 3. Multiplication of species
-this process is now called “speciation”.
-speciation is the formation of new and certain species in the course of evolution.
-Darwin’s view is the same to what is now called allopatric speciation.
4. Gradualism
-most evolutionary change occurs slowly.
-a policy of gradual reform rather than sudden change or revolution.
-In Biology, the hypothesis that evolution proceeds chiefly by the accumulation of
gradual changes
5. Natural selection
-this was Darwin’s mechanism for how evolutionary change happened.
-Natural selection is the process by which the life forms most fit to survive and
reproduce in a given environment do so in greater numbers than others in the
same population.

Natural selection
Darwin also proposed a mechanism for evolution called natural selection. This
mechanism was elegant and logical, and it explained how populations could evolve
(undergo descent with modification) in such a way that they completely adapted to their
environments over time.
Darwin's concept of natural selection was based on some key observations:
 Traits are often heritable. In living organisms, many traits are inherited, or passed
through from parent to offspring/s. (Darwin knew this was the case, even though
he did not know that traits were inherited through genes.)
 More offspring are produced than can survive. Organisms are able to produce
more offspring than their environments can support. Thus, there is competition to
obtain those limited resources in each generation.
 Offspring vary in their heritable traits. The offspring in any generation will be
slightly different from one another in their characteristics (color, size, shape, etc.),
and many of these features will be heritable.

Stabilizing Selection. If natural selection favors an average phenotype against extreme

variation, the population will undergo stabilizing selection. For example, in a population
of mice that live in the woods, natural selection will tend to favor individuals that best
suited with the forest floor and are less likely to be spotted by predators. Assuming the
surface is a fairly consistent with a shade of brown, those mice whose fur is most-closely
blended to that color will most probably survive and reproduce, passing on their genes
with brown coat.

Directional Selection. When the environmental changes occur, populations will often
undergo directional selection, which selects for phenotypes at one end of the spectrum of
currently existing variation. A classic example of this kind of selection is the evolution of
the peppered moth in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century England. Prior to the Industrial
Revolution, the moths were predominately light in color, which enable them to adapt
with the light-colored trees and lichens in their environment. As soot began spewing from
factories, the trees darkened and the light-colored moths became easier for predatory
birds to be spotted.

Diversifying (or Disruptive) Selection. Sometimes natural selection can select for two
or more certain phenotypes that each have their advantages. In these cases, the average
phenotypes are often less fit than their extreme counterparts. Known as diversifying or
disruptive selection, this is seen in many populations of animals that have multiple male
mating techniques, such as lobsters. Large, dominant alpha males obtain pairs by using
brutal force, while small males can sneak in for furtive copulations with the females in an
alpha male’s territory. In this case, both the alpha males and the “sneaking” males will be
selected for, but medium-sized males, which cannot overtake the alpha males and are too
big to sneak copulations, are selected against.

Sexual Selection. The selection pressures males and females to obtain mating known as
sexual selection. Sexual selection takes two major types: intersexual selection (also
known as ‘mate choice’ or ‘female choice’) in which males compete with each other to
be selected by females; and intrasexual selection (also known as ‘male–male
competition’) in which members of the less limited sex (typically males) fight among
themselves to win the limiting sex. The limiting sex is the sex which has the higher
parental investment and good traits suited to the environment, which therefore faces the
most pressure to make a good mate decision.

Artificial Selection. Artificial selection is the intentional reproduction of individuals in a

population that have desirable traits by humans. In organisms that reproduce sexually,
two adults that possess a desired trait — such as two parent plants that are tall — are bred
together by humans. In this example, the mechanisms of heredity dictate that the next
generation will have more tall plants than previous generations. If artificial selection is
continually done, all of the population will ultimately be tall. Also called selective
breeding, artificial selection is perhaps best understood as the opposite of natural
selection, where the random forces of nature determine which individuals will survive
and reproduce. In both cases, the outcome is similar: a population changes over time, so
that certain traits become more common.

https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/her/evolution-and-natural-
selection/a/darwin-evolution-natural-selection
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-biology/chapter/adaptive-evolution/
https://www.learner.org/courses/essential/life/session5/closer1.html