The Darwinian Revolution

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.
• Evolution is the theory that explains how organisms have arisen and diversified from
earlier organisms.
• One of Erasmus Darwin's contemporaries, Georges Cuvier, wrote on comparative
anatomy and physiology and first established the concept of extinction.

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The Darwinian Revolution
Figure 1 Charles Darwin (1809–1882).

Darwin’s fervent interest in the natural

world began as a young boy and
continued unabated throughout his
remarkable career.

Principles of Biology
The Darwinian Revolution

What influenced Darwin's ideas about species?

• 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.
• Darwin eventually applied the idea that ongoing, observable processes can account for the
variety of features in the natural world to living systems.
• 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.

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The Darwinian Revolution
Figure 2 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.

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The Darwinian Revolution

Darwin's publications came amid academic discussion on the

matter of evolution.
• In 1844, Darwin wrote an essay covering the main ideas about how species change slowly
over time, a process he called descent with modification, and the mechanism that drives
these changes, which he called natural selection.
• Instead of immediately publishing his scientific explanation of origins-which did not mention
a divine creator-he spent years gathering more supporting evidence.
• In 1858, English naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace sent Darwin a manuscript, requesting
that he review it and pass it along to Lyell.
• Darwin was shocked to read Wallace's hypothesis about natural selection, which was
nearly identical to his own.
• After receiving Wallace's hypothesis about natural selection, Darwin quickly completed
work on his book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, and published it
in 1859.
• Lyell presented Wallace's paper together with excerpts from Darwin's unpublished 1844
essay to a scientific society in London.
• Wallace admired Darwin and respected his work. Recognizing that Darwin had more fully
developed the hypothesis, Wallace wanted Darwin to receive primary credit.
• Wallace went on to devote himself to research in biogeography, the study of the
geographical distribution of species.

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The Darwinian Revolution
Figure 4 Alfred Russel Wallace.

Although most people credit Darwin with

developing the theory of natural
selection, Wallace simultaneously
produced a similar hypothesis.

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The Darwinian Revolution

Darwin's hypothesis described the evolutionary relationships

between taxonomic groups.
• Darwin's idea of descent with modification explained how species change slowly over time
as they adapt to environments.
• Darwin proposed that all species descended step by step from a single common ancestor
by adapting to changing environments or to new environments arrived at by migration.
• Darwin's work explained taxonomic relationships between groups of organisms, which
were related by common ancestry and not necessarily by outward form.
• Gaps between forms signalled the importance of extinction. Before Darwin's work, most
scientists had not appreciated the phenomenon's relevance, in part because it was not
supported by theology.

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The Darwinian Revolution
Figure 5 Phylogenetic tree showing evolutionary relationships.

Extinct species represent gaps in body

forms of extant species. Fossil
discoveries help fill in the gaps and
reconstruct the evolutionary trajectory of
the group.

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Darwin proposed natural selection as the mechanism of

descent with modification.
• In Origin of Species, Darwin constructed a logical argument for the mechanism of natural
selection based on two observations and inferences: (1) individuals in a species vary to
some degree in traits; and (2) a species produces more offspring than actually survives to
mature and reproduce.
• Individuals with traits better suited to their environments are more likely to survive and
reproduce; therefore, their offspring are more likely to inherit these adaptive traits.

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The Darwinian Revolution
Figure 6 Darwin’s logical argument for natural selection.

Since the time of Darwin's writing,

researchers have been able to observe
the diffferential survival of individuals
with adaptive traits over multiple
generations. They have seen that, in a
population over time of multiple
generations, those adaptive traits
accumulate (Follow the trend in red and
green shapes).

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Controversy.
• Darwin's publications were nothing short of revolutionary. Within a decade of Origin's
publication, scientists accepted evolutionary theory as mainstream.
• Over the past 150 years, Darwin's theory of natural selection has been refined and
supported by great volumes of evidence from varied domains, including genetics, geology,
anatomy, physiology, and embryology.
• In science terminology, a theory is not an idea or an educated guess, but rather an
observed, tested, and accepted fact of the natural world, like gravity.
• The Church of England and many of its followers reacted with predictable hostility, but
eventually the church softened its stance.
• In recent years, Reverend Dr. Malcolm Brown, Director of the Mission and Public Affairs of
the Church of England, published an essay entitled "Good Religion Needs Good Science,"
outlining an acceptance of Darwin's scientific ideas while rejecting some of their social
misappropriations.
• In certain parts of the United States, the controversy shows no sign of abating as battles
still rage over the teaching of evolution in schools.

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