History of Evolutionary Thought

The world before and during Darwin

Outline
Pre-Darwinian thought
! Carolus Linnaeus ! Georges Cuvier ! Thomas Malthus

! Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Charles Darwin
! Life ! Evolution by Natural Selection

Pre-Darwinian, Pre-scientific
! Static world, fixed and unchanging ! Universe, life ! Platos essentialism

World was created in present form by God

Scala Naturae Great Chain of Being

Scientific Revolution
! Copernicus (1473-1543)
challenged the idea that the earth was the center of the universe

! Galileo (1564-1642)
furthered the work of Copernicus, testing and supporting heliocentric model of the solar system

! Keppler, Descartes, and Newton (16-17th centuries)

established the laws of physics, motion and gravity

Carolus Linnaeus
! Swedish botanist, zoologist, physician ! Systema Naturae (1735)
! established modern system of taxonomic classification ! Kingdom, Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, Species

! Pattern of Gods creation

1707-1778

Linnaean classification
! Nested classification ! Similar species grouped into Genus ! Similar genus grouped into Family ! Etc.

Linnaean classification
! Homo sapiens man + wise ! Homo troglodytes argued that humans and chimpanzees belonged in same genus

Age of Enlightenment
! 18th Century ! Faith in progress ! Power of reason It was an atmosphere that encouraged the questioning of old beliefs and suggested that the natural world, like the human condition, could change.
Futuyma Evol Biol (3rd ed) p18

Natural history

Sought to sought to describe and classify the variation in life forms as a means of understanding and appreciating Gods wisdom

Uniformitarianism
! James Hutton (1726-1797) ! Scottish geologist ! Geologic processes at work today were likewise at work in the past ! Study the past through the present ! Earth so old we perceive no vestige of a beginning no prospect of an end ! Charles Lyell (1797-1875) ! Scottish geologist ! Expanded upon and popularized Huttons work ! Earths geology shaped by slow processes over vast swaths of time ! Influential for young Charles Darwin

How to explain fossils?

! Georges Cuvier (1769-1832), anatomist ! first to propose the concept of extinction ! fossil record: catastrophes followed by repopulation

Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet Chevalier de Lamarck

! Synthesized much of 18th century hypotheses ! Biological entities change in response to environmental influence (Comte de Buffon) ! Inheritance of acquired characteristics ! Comprehensive preDarwinian hypotheses for mechanism behind Evolutionary change

Lamarkism

ultimately incorrect

Lamarks Theory of Organic Progression

! predetermined Scale of Being ! Simple organisms were spontaneously generated at the bottom ! Over time, species evolved up the scale (aka Great Chain of Being) progressing to older more complex forms ! Pinnacle = human beings (of course)

Thomas Malthus
! 1766-1834 ! Economist, founded field of demography ! Influenced by observations in London ! Not enough food to feed everyone ! Unchecked growth must lead to famine

Malthus to Darwin
! Pair of parents produce multiple offspring ! Population size does not increase over time ! Population is limited by the food supply ! Members of populations compete for access to food ! No two members of a species are alike in physical attributes

Summary
(pre-Darwinian)
! Age of enlightenment, progress and reason ! Geology uniformitarianism suggests the Earth has been shaped by slow processes over VERY long periods of time (Hutton and Lyell) ! Paleontology revealing unexplained fossil remains ! Some forms have died out (gone extinct Cuvier) ! Lamarck presents comprehensive (but ultimately incorrect) hypothesis for evolutionary change ! Malthus introduces concept of competition for resources

Charles Darwin

If I were to give an award for the single best idea anyone has ever had, Id give it to Darwin, ahead of Newton and Einstein and everyone else. In a single stroke, the idea of evolution by natural selection unifies the realm of life, meaning, and purpose with the realm of space and time, cause and effect, mechanism and physical law.
Daniel Dennett Darwins Dangerous Idea (1995) p21

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin
! 1809-1882 ! Training in theology, medicine, but ultimately excelling in natural history ! Influenced by Lyell, Malthus especially ! Came of age in voyage around the world in H.M.S. Beagle between 1831-1836

Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836)

! Darwin spent 5 years as the ships naturalist ! Spent days collecting specimens ! Observed variation within species ! Observed geographical distribution of species across continents and between islands

Voyage of the Beagle (1831-1836)

Galapagos Islands
! Tremendous diversity of animals ! Diverse ecosystems

Darwins Finches

after Voyage of the Beagle

! 1839 Voyage of the Beagle 1842 Structure and Distribution of Coral Reefs 1844 Geological Observations of S. America Volcanic Islands 1846 Geological Observations of S. America South America 1851, 1854 Several monographs on barnacles ! 1859 publishes On the Origin of Species as an abstract after pushed by similar discoveries by Wallace Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913) ! In 1858, Wallace submits article to Darwin on a theory of natural selection ! Similar to Darwins, but no where near as detailed

Central premises of Natural selection

1.! Variation individuals within a species show variation in their physical and behavior traits (field observations) 2. Inheritance some of this variation is heritable from parent to offspring (observation from domesticated animal breeders)

Central premises of Natural selection

3.! Adaptation individuals compete for scarce resources (food, shelter, mates, etc). Some inherited traits have survival/reproductive advantages (from Malthus) 4.! Evolution over time, adaptive variations will accumulate as successful individuals produce more offspring who in tern inherit the same advantages (influence of Lyell and Darwins synthesis)

Last paragraph from Origins

It is interesting to contemplate an entangled bank, clothed with many plants of many kinds, with birds singing on the bushes, with various insects flitting about, and with worms crawling through the damp earth, and to reflect that these elaborately constructed forms, so different from each other, and dependent on each other in so complex a manner, have all been produced by laws acting around us. These laws, taken in the largest sense, being Growth with Reproduction; Inheritance which is almost implied by reproduction; Variability from the indirect and direct action of the external conditions of life, and from use and disuse; a Ratio of Increase so high as to lead to a Struggle for Life, and as a consequence to Natural Selection entailing Divergence of Character and the Extinction of lessimproved forms

Last paragraph from Origins

Thus, from the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms, or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
Darwin, Origin of Species (1859)

Apply to humans?
1871 - Descent of Man
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ evolution/big-thinkers-evolution.html

Dangerous idea?

What Darwin Never Knew

! Framework for Evolutionary Theory established by Darwin has stood the test of time ! Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, scientists have elucidated and clarified the mechanics ! January 16 (MONDAY) No Class: MLKJr Holiday ! January 18 (WEDNESDAY) FILM: What Darwin Never New