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Development of Evolutionary Thought

The document discusses the development of evolutionary thought by scientists including Jean Baptiste Lamarck, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace. Lamarck proposed the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics, Darwin established evolution through natural selection on his voyage on the HMS Beagle, and Wallace independently developed the theory of natural selection.

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33 views4 pages

Development of Evolutionary Thought

The document discusses the development of evolutionary thought by scientists including Jean Baptiste Lamarck, Charles Darwin, and Alfred Russel Wallace. Lamarck proposed the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics, Darwin established evolution through natural selection on his voyage on the HMS Beagle, and Wallace independently developed the theory of natural selection.

Uploaded by

christopher daniolco
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Development of Evolutionary Thought

Scientists Involved in Developing Evolutionary Thought


 Jean Baptiste Lamarck
 Charles Darwin
 Alfred Russel Wallace
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
 The modern era generally remembers Lamarck for a theory of inheritance of acquired
characteristics
 Lamarckism or use/disuse theory,[which he described in his 1809 Philosophie
Zoologique.
Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics
 the environment can produce physical changes in an organism during its lifetime that are
inheritable
Theory of Use and Disuse
 If a behavior or organ is useful and beneficial to the organism, then the body part used
becomes more prominent.
 Likewise, if the part is not beneficial, the organism will eventually remove or replace the
body part.

Charles Darwin
 An English naturalist, geologist, and biologist, best known for his contributions to the
science of evolution.
 He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestor.
 Father of Evolution
Charles Darwin’s Voyage
 Boarded the HMS Beagle ship to explore the Southern Hemisphere
 The voyage took 5years to finish
 Darwin collected fossil remains of an armadillo-like animal (Glyptodon), and a giant
ground sloth, Mylodon darwinii,
 Observed marine shells in Andes Mountains
 These findings suggest that the Earth is very old
 He began to think that there would have been enough time for descent with modification
to occur.
 In Galapagos Island, the types of plants and animals Darwin found there were slightly
different from species he had observed on the mainland, and even more important, they
varied from island to island.
 One of Darwin’s most famous observations from the Galápagos Islands was his study
of the finches.
 Ending his journey, Darwin concluded that species change over time and are not fixed
entities crafter by a creator.
 He developed the idea of Natural Selection
Charles Darwin
 Fitness is the reproductive success of an individual relative to other members of a
population.
 Hence the term Survival of the Fittest
 An advantageous trait, will allow the population to proliferate and outnumber the other
trait, hence Natural Selection
 Natural Selection leads to Adaptation

Alfred Russel Wallace


 During their time it is widely acknowledged that species have been the same from the
very beginning and will still be the same to the end
 On his eight years journey, he had collected samples of various species of plants and
animals one of them is different variations of Birdwing butterflies.
Wallace also thought that species that look almost the same differ in key characteristics
because they have been modified through their struggle to survive.
 Wrote the journal “On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely from the
Original Type”
 He reasoned about how the animals in the wild struggle for existence. He said that
naturally, there are a greater number of offspring born than can survive. That is because
of different factors such as food supply and environmental conditions or hazards.
 Environment dictated which among these offspring will survive, and these survivors will
have a higher ability to reproduce and pass on their traits to another generation.
As these three given theories develop, we have arrived at the most accepted theory of
evolution today, which is Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species; this is because,
through his and Wallace’s observation, we can now conclude that the giraffes on Lamarck’s
theory of use and disuse did not develop long necks simply because of frequent use of their
neck.

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