Evolution

•Definition
-gradual change over time
-L. e-, out + volvere, to roll

•Types
-GEOLOGIC EVOLUTION
-BIOLOGICAL or ORGANIC EVOLUTION
The foundation of modem evolutionary thought was described by
Charles Darwin

THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

Evolution Before Darwin
Greek Philosophers
•Plato’s Idealism
•Aristotle’s scala naturae (scale of nature)
- special creation of each species
- organisms were created in their current form
- the earth was only a few thousand years

Carl Von Linne

•Swedish botanist
•worked on the classification of plants
•published: Species Plantarum (-7,300 plants)
•ordered classification of plants based on their similarities
- Showed the natural relationships of plants

Thomas Malthus
•economist & clergyman
•published: An Essay on the Principle of Population
- Populations had an inherent tendency to increase geometrically,
while the resources needed to support this growth increase slowly
or not at all.
- Because the continued growth of a species would outstrip
needed resources, growth would be limited.

Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck
•French biologist
•proposed that modem species
•descended from other species

Lamarckism based on two theories:

1. Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
- Traits acquired by an individual during its life are passed to its
offspring
2. Use and Disuse
- Organs of the body that were used extensively to cope with the
environment became larger and stronger, while organs that were
not used deteriorated
Example:
The Evolution of the Giraffe
Giraffes obtained their long necks from previous giraffes who stretched
to eat the leaves of high tree branches.
Stretching increased the length of their necks, and this acquired
characteristic was passed to the next generation.

Lamarckism
•first to present a unified theory that attempted to explain the changes
in organisms from one generation to the next
• although mechanisms proposed for change was wrong, since acquired
characteristics are not heritable
 - origin of species from preexisting species
- ability of organisms to adapt

Georges Cuvier
•French anatomist and naturalist and writer
•paleontologist
•strongly opposed the concept of evolution
- history of living organisms recorded in layers of rock containing a
succession of fossil species in chronological order
- fossils were organisms that had died in a series of catastrophes,
after which extinct plants and animals were replaced by the
immigration of distant species to the devastated region ->
Catastrophism

James Hutton
•Scottish geologist
•took up law, medicine and agriculture
•published: Theory of the Earth
- geological change occurred slowly but continuously by the
process of Gradualism
- sedimentary rock that encased fossils formed by the gradual
accumulation of sediments in bodies of water

Charles Lyell
•Scottish lawyer turned geologist
•published: Principles of Geology
-Uniformitarianism – the processes that alter the Earth are
uniform through time
-believed Hutton’s evidence for gradualism indicated that the
earth was millions of years old
-believed that even the slow and subtle processes could cause
substantial change over time

Georges Cuvier, James Hutton, and Charles Lyell

 • Geological evolution
- the earth is very old and constantly changing
- life existed millions of years ago
• geologists were convinced of an ancient earth, but were at odds
over how to explain the appearance and disappearance of species
in the fossil record
• believed in in special creation

Gregor Mendel
•Austrian biologist
•discovered the basic principles of heredity
•father of Classical Genetics
- Individual characteristics are determined by inherited factors
transmitted from parent to offspring.

Charles Darwin
•voyage on the H.M.S.
Beagle(1836)
•published (1859): The Origin of Species
•first person who proposed a mechanistic approach to evolutionary
thought
•the father of synthetic evolution
- species not specially created in their present forms, but had
evolved from ancestral species
- proposed a mechanism for evolution:
Natural Selection
• A population of organisms can change over time as a result of
individuals with certain heritable characteristics leaving more
offspring than other individuals.

Alfred Russel Wallace

•English naturalist
• studied the Malay Archipelago and Amazon
•proposed a theory of evolution similar to Darwin’s
“Then I saw at once that the ever-present variability of all living things
would furnish the material from which, by the mere weeding out of
those less adapted to the actual conditions, the fittest alone would
continue the race.”

Darwinism in Historical Context

Neo-Darwinian/Contemporary Times

Hugo De Veries, Carl Correns, and Erich Von Tschermak

•rediscovered Mendel’s laws of heredity
•the start of rediscovering evolution in terms of Menders ideas

James Watson and Francis Crick

•elucidated the structure of DNA (genetic material)
•DNA contains coded information which acts as a blueprint for the
transfer of hereditary information from generation to generation
•mutation as the raw material for evolution