LESSON 5: Development of Evolutionary Thought

Science never takes places in a void and evolutionary thought is no exception.

Although Charles Darwin is considered to be by many the "father" of evolutionary thought, he
was in fact aided and guided by the works of many scientists before him. The theories and
ideas proposed by his predecessors were limited to the information available at the time.
Darwin himself had no knowledge of genetics and therefore, his theory of natural selection as
an explanation of evolution was based solely on what he observed and knew at the time.

JOHN RAY (1627–1705)

A 17th-century English naturalist and botanist, a
minister educated at Cambridge University.
The first person to recognize that groups of plants and
animals could be distinguished from other groups by
their ability to mate with one another and produce
offspring.
He placed such groups of reproductively isolated
organisms into a single category, which he called the
species (pl., species).
Ray also recognized that species frequently shared
similarities with other species, and he grouped these
together in a second level of classification he called Source:britannica.com

the genus (pl., genera).

CAROLUS LINNAEUS (1707–1778)

A Swedish naturalist best known for developing a
method of classifying plants and animals.
Known for his famous work Systema Naturae
(Systems of Nature), first published in 1735, where he
standardized Ray’s use of genus and species
terminology and established the system of binomial
nomenclature.
He also added two more categories: class and order.
Linnaeus’ four-level system became the basis for
taxonomy. For his contribution, Linnaeus is known as
the “father of taxonomy.”
Source: pacifichorticulture.org
As scientists have discovered new species and
evolutionary history has come into sharper focus, many levels have been added to the
Linnaean system of classification resulting to the 8-level taxonomic classification
system.
Regardless of the level, when a group of organisms is being described, they are now
called a taxon or taxa for plural groups. Each taxon is a subdivision of the taxon below
it. The Domain is the largest and most inclusive taxa while the species is the smallest
and most exclusive one.
 Figure 1. The Taxonomic Classification
System.

GEORGES-LOUIS LECLERC, COMTE DE BUFFON (1707–1788)

A French mathematician and naturalist, George Louis
Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, actually said that living
things do change through time.
Unlike others, he recognized the dynamic relationship
between the external environment and living forms.
In his Natural History, first published in 1749, he
repeatedly stressed the importance of change in the
universe and in the changing nature of species.
Buffon believed that when groups of organisms
migrated to new areas, they were gradually altered as
a result of adaptation to a somewhat different
Source:timetoast.com
environment.
Buffon’s recognition of the external environment as an agent of change in species was
an important innovation; however, he rejected the idea that one species could give rise
to another.

ERASMUS DARWIN (1731–1802)

Best known as Charles Darwin’s grandfather. But
he was also a physician, inventor, naturalist,
philosopher, and a poet.
He believed that evolution has occurred in living
things, including humans, but he only had rather
fuzzy ideas about what might be responsible for
this change.
He wrote of his ideas about evolution in poems
and a relatively obscure two volume scientific
publication entitled Zoonomia; or, the Laws of
Organic Life (1794-1796).
Source: sciencefocus.com
 In this latter work, he also suggested that the earth and life on it must have been
evolving for "millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind."

JEAN BAPTISTE-LAMARCK (1744–1829)

The first scientist who attempted to explain the
evolutionary process was a French naturalist named
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Like Buffon, he suggested a dynamic relationship
between species and the environment such that if the
external environment changed, an animal’s activity
patterns would also change to accommodate the new
circumstances. This would result in the increased or
decreased use of certain body parts, and
consequently, those body parts would be modified
(Principle of Use and Disuse).
Source:alamy.com
According to Lamarck, these physical changes would
occur in response to bodily “needs,” so that if a particular part of the body felt a certain
need, “fluids and forces” would be directed to that point and the structure would be
modified. Because the alteration would make the animal better suited to its habitat, the
new trait would be passed on to its offspring (Inheritance of Acquired
Characteristics).

Figure 2. One of the

most frequently given
hypothetical examples
of Lamarck’s theory is
that of the giraffe.

Source: sparknotes.com
 An extension of Lamarck's ideas of inheritance that has stood the test of time, however,
is the idea that evolutionary change takes place gradually and constantly. He studied
ancient seashells and noticed that the older they were, the simpler they appeared.
From this, he concluded that species started out simple and consistently moved toward
complexity, or, as he termed it, closer to perfection.

GEORGES CUVIER (1769–1832)

A French vertebrate paleontologist and the most
vehement opponent of Lamarck.
He introduced the concept of extinction to explain the
disappearance of animals represented by fossils.
He believes in fixity in species and so, rather than to
assume that similarities between certain fossil forms
and living species indicated evolutionary relationships,
he suggested a variation of a theory known as
catastrophism.
Catastrophism was the belief that the earth’s
geological features are the results of sudden,
worldwide cataclysmic events like the Noah flood. Source:sciencephoto.com

He suggested that a series of regional disasters had destroyed most or all of the plant
and animal life in various places. These areas were then restocked with new, similar
forms that migrated in from unaffected regions.
In order to be consistent with emerging fossil evidence that indicated organisms had
become more complex over time, so he suggested that after each disaster, the
incoming migrants had a more modern appearance because they were the results of
more recent creation events.

THOMAS MALTHUS (1766–1834)

An English clergyman and economist.
He wrote the book, An Essay on the Principle of
Population, which inspired both Charles Darwin and
Alfred Wallace in their separate discoveries of natural
selection.
In his essay, Malthus argued for limits to human
population growth and pointed out that human
populations could double in size every 25 years if they
weren’t kept in check by limited food supplies.
By reading his book, Darwin and Wallace recognized
the important fact that when population size is limited
by the availability of resources, there must be Source:britannica.com
constant competition for food and water. And competition between individuals is the
ultimate key to understanding natural selection.

JAMES HUTTON (1726 - 1797)

A Scottish farmer and naturalist, best known for his important contributions to the
science of geology (uniformitarianism and the great age of the earth).
Uniformitarianism is a theory in geology developed by James Hutton according to
which profound changes to the Earth, such as the Grand Canyon, are due to slow
 continuous processes and not to catastrophes as
proposed by the theory of catastrophism.
This theory inspired an evolution theory in
paleontology, also called uniformitarianism. According
to this theory, the population of a species is
transformed slowly and progressively into a new
species by the accumulation of micro-evolutionary
changes in the genetic heritage.
Hutton was also the first person to propose a
mechanism of natural selection to account for
evolutionary change over time through his book,
Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge. Source:nl.pinterest.com
Hutton argues that members of species vary, and that when the environment changes
over time, those individuals best adapted to the new environment will survive, while
those poorly adapted will perish. Thus, a process of natural selection (Hutton did not
use this term) inevitably leads to change within species over time.

CHARLES LYELL (1797–1875)

He is a barrister, a geologist, considered the founder
of modern geology and for many years Charles
Darwin’s friend and mentor.
In his three volume Principles of Geology, Lyell
documented the fact that the earth must be very old
and that it has been subject to the same sort of natural
processes in the past that operate today in shaping
the land.
He argued that the geological processes observed in
the present are the same as those that occurred in the
past.
These forces include erosion, earthquakes, glacial Source:en.wikipedia.org
movements, volcanoes, and even the decomposition of plants and animals.
Lyell provided conclusive evidence for the theory of uniformitarianism, which had been
developed originally by the late 18th century Scottish geologist, James Hutton. This
held that the natural forces now changing the shape of the earth's surface have been
operating in the past much the same way.

CHARLES DARWIN (1809–1882)

Charles Robert Darwin is a British naturalist and
biologist known for his theory of evolution and his
understanding of the process of natural selection.
For this, he is known as the “father of evolution”.
In 1831, he embarked on a five-year voyage around
the world on the HMS Beagle, during which time his
studies of various plants and an led him to formulate
his theories.
The Voyage of the Beagle
In 1831, when Darwin was just 22 years old, he set sail on a scientific expedition on a
ship called the HMS Beagle. He was the naturalist on the voyage. As a naturalist, it was his
job to observe and collect specimens of plants, animals, rocks, and fossils wherever the
expedition went ashore.
During the long voyage, Darwin made many observations that helped him form his
theory of evolution. For example:
▪ He visited tropical rainforests and other new habitats where he saw many plants and
animals he had never seen before (see Figure below). This impressed him with the
great diversity of life.
▪ He experienced an earthquake that lifted the ocean floor 2.7 meters (9 feet) above sea
level. He also found rocks containing fossil sea shells in mountains high above sea
level. These observations suggested that continents and oceans had changed
dramatically over time and continue to change in dramatic ways.
▪ He visited rock ledges that had clearly once been beaches that had gradually built up
over time. This suggested that slow, steady processes also change Earth’s surface.
▪ He dug up fossils of gigantic extinct mammals, such as the ground sloth (see Figure
below). This was hard evidence that organisms looked very different in the past. It
suggested that living things—like Earth’s surface—change over time.

Source: ck12.org
Figure 3. Darwin’s observations. On his voyage, Darwin saw giant marine iguanas
and blue-footed boobies. He also dug up the fossil skeleton of a giant ground sloth like
the one shown here. From left: Giant Marine Iguana, Blue-Footed Boobies, and Fossil
Skeleton of a Giant Ground Sloth.

The Galápagos Islands

Darwin’s most important observations were made on the Galápagos Islands. This is a
group of 16 small volcanic islands 966 kilometers (600 miles) off the west coast of Ecuador,
South America.
Individual Galápagos islands differ from one another in important ways. Some are
rocky and dry. Others have better soil and more rainfall. Darwin noticed that the plants and
animals on the different islands also differed. For example, the giant tortoises on one island
had saddle-shaped shells, while those on another island had dome-shaped shells (see Figure
below). People who lived on the islands could even tell the island a turtle came from by its
shell. This started Darwin thinking about the origin of species. He wondered how each island
came to have its own type of tortoise.
 Source: ck12.org

Figure 4. Galápagos Tortoises. Galápagos tortoises have differently shaped shells

depending on which island they inhabit. Tortoises with saddle-shaped shells can reach up
to eat plant leaves above their head. Tortoises with dome-shaped shells cannot reach up
in this way. These two types of tortoises live on islands with different environments and
food sources.

Another important finding of Darwin on his trip to the Galapagos Islands in the 1830s,
is that he noticed that certain species (finches, for example) were similar from island to island,
but each had managed to adapt to their environments in different ways. Darwin wondered
about the changes in their beaks and realized that they were all slightly different shapes to
make them fitter to survive on available food. There are 26 species of native birds on the
Galapagos Islands, 14 of which make up the group known as Darwin’s finches. These birds
are considered to be the fastest-evolving vertebrates in the world.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection
It took Darwin years to form his theory of evolution by natural selection. His reasoning went
like this:
1. Like Lamarck, Darwin assumed that species can change over time. The fossils he
found helped convince him of that.
2. From Lyell, Darwin saw that Earth and its life were very old. Thus, there had been
enough time for evolution to produce the great diversity of life Darwin had observed.
3. From Malthus, Darwin knew that populations could grow faster than their resources.
This “overproduction of offspring” led to a “struggle for existence,” in Darwin’s words.
4. From artificial selection, Darwin knew that some offspring have variations that occur
by chance, and that can be inherited. In nature, offspring with certain variations might
be more likely to survive the “struggle for existence” and reproduce. If so, they would
pass their favorable variations to their offspring.
5. Darwin coined the term fitness to refer to an organism’s relative ability to survive and
produce fertile offspring. Nature selects the variations that are most useful. Therefore,
he called this type of selection natural selection.
6. Darwin knew artificial selection could change domestic species over time. He inferred
that natural selection could also change species over time. In fact, he thought that if a
species changed enough, it might evolve into a new species.

Another English naturalist named Alfred Russel Wallace

lived at about the same time as Darwin. He also traveled to
distant places to study nature. Wallace wasn’t as famous as
Darwin. However, he developed basically the same theory of
evolution. While working in distant lands, Wallace sent Darwin a
paper he had written. In the paper, Wallace explained his
evolutionary theory. This served to confirm what Darwin already
thought. Wallace’s paper not only confirmed Darwin’s ideas. It
also pushed him to finish his book, On the Origin of Species.
Published in 1859, this book changed science forever. It clearly Source: en.wikipedia.org
spelled out Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and provided convincing
arguments and evidence to support it.
*Take note that it is not only Charles Darwin who is credit in the development of the theory of evolution
through natural selection. Another scientist, Alfred Russel Wallace from his exploration of the Amazon
Basin is considered as the co-discoverer of the theory of evolution by natural selection.

MODERN SYNTHESIS OR NEO-DARWINIAN THEORY

The Modern Synthesis describes the fusion of Mendelian genetics with Darwinian
evolution that resulted in a unified theory of evolution. It is sometimes referred to as
the Neo-Darwinian theory. The Modern Synthesis was developed by a number of now-
legendary evolutionary biologists in the 1930s and 1940s.
The Modern Synthesis introduced several changes in how evolution and evolutionary
processes were conceived. It proposed a new definition of evolution as "changes in
allele frequencies within populations, " thus emphasizing the genetic basis of evolution.
(Alleles are alternate forms of the same gene, characterized by differences in DNA
sequence that result in the construction of proteins that differ in amino acid
composition.)
Four forces of evolution were identified as contributing to changes in allele frequencies.
These are random genetic drift, gene flow, mutation pressure, and natural selection.
the Modern Synthesis succeeds in explaining the persistence of genetic variation, a
problem that Charles Darwin struggled with. The dominant genetic theory of Darwin's
time was blending inheritance, in which offspring were thought to be the genetic
intermediates (in-between versions) of their two parents. As Darwin correctly
recognized, blending inheritance would result in the rapid end of genetic variation
within a population, giving natural selection no material to work with. Incorporating
Gregor Mendel's particulate theory of inheritance, in which the alleles of a gene remain
separate instead of merging, solves this problem.
There were several key players involved in the Modern Synthesis. The theory relied
on the population genetics work of R. A. Fisher and Sewall Wright. Theodosius
Dobzhansky made extensive studies of natural populations of the fruitfly Drosophila
that supported many aspects of the theory. Ernst Mayr developed the biological
species concept and created models concerning how speciation occurs. George
Gaylord Simpson helped integrate paleontological observations into the theory behind
the Modern Synthesis. G. Ledyard Stebbins contributed tenets (principles) based on
his botanical work.
Since the 1990s it has been recognized that the Modern Synthesis omits some
biological disciplines that are also relevant to evolution. In particular, much attention
has focused on patterns of ontogeny and development.