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EVOLUTION History

Contrary to many assumptions, evolutionary theory did not begin in 1859 with Charles Darwin and The Origin of Species. Evolution-like ideas had existed since the times of the Greeks, and had been in and out of favor in the periods between ancient Greece and Victorian England. The Greeks did not specifically refer to their concepts as "evolution", however, they did have a philosophical notion of descent with modification. Several different Greek philosophers subscribed to a concept of origination, arguing that all things originated from water or air. The German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) developed a concept of descent that is relatively close to modern thinking; he did in a way anticipate Darwinian thinking. Based on similarities between organisms, Kant speculated that they may have come from a single ancestral source.Lamarck was one of the earliest advocates of evolutionary ideas. His theory included the Inheritance of Acquired characteristics. He believed that the long muscular necks of the present giraffe had evolved over many generations as giraffes stretched their necks ever higher. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both independently developed the idea of the mechanism of natural selection after reading Thomas Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). However, Darwin had been contemplating on this idea for over twenty years before he first published The Origin of Species. Lamarck's Hypothesis: The Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics

Use and Disuse

1. Use and disuse: described how body parts of organisms can develop with increased usage while unused parts weaken. This idea is correct, as is commonly observed among athletes who train for competitions. 2. Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics: Those characteristics developed ("acquired") by individuals are somehow passed on to their offspring, who can continue that development... This idea was incorrect as only changes in genetic material can be passed on to offspring. 3. Natural transformation of Species: described how organisms produced offspring with changes, transforming each subsequent generation into a slightly different form toward some ultimate, higher order of complexity. Species did not become extinct nor did they split and change into two or more species. This idea was also incorrect.
Although Lamarck's theories have been discredited, Lamarck still deserves credit for recognizing that organisms interact with their environment and experience through evolutionary change and for proposing a testable mechanism for this change.

Figure%: Use and disuse in the evolution of the neck of the giraffe

The classic example used to explain the concept of use and disuse is the elongated neck of the giraffe. According to Lamarck's theory, a given giraffe could, over a lifetime of straining to reach high branches, develop an elongated neck. A major downfall of his theory was that he could not explain how this might happen, though he discussed a "natural tendency toward perfection." Another example Lamarck used was the toes of water birds. He proposed that from years of straining their toes to swim through water, these birds gained elongated, webbed toes to better their swimming. These two examples demonstrate how use could change a trait. By the same token, Lamarck believed that disuse would cause a trait to become reduced. The wings of penguins, for example, would be smaller than those of other birds because penguins do not use them to fly. Lamarckian Inheritance The second part of Lamarck's mechanism for evolution involved the inheritance of acquired traits. He believed that traits changed or acquired over an individual's lifetime could be passed down to its offspring. Giraffes that had acquired long necks would have offspring with long necks rather than the short necks their parents were born with. This type of inheritance, sometimes called Lamarckian inheritance, has since been disproved by the discovery of hereditary genetics. 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. CHARLES DARWIN The theory, much like the process, of evolution developed gradually over time. Charles Darwin was a scientist in the 1800s whose theories of evolution are still held today. Darwin originally believed the view of divine creation, the idea that every species was created by a divine being and is unchanging. It was while he was on a ship voyage around the world that he read the works of other scientists and observed animals in different continents, that he began to think that species must have changed gradually and were not made to exist only as they were created. He devoted his life to the study of plants and animals and after reading Thomas Malthuss Essay on the Principle of Population, he concluded that species with superior physical and behavioral attributes are more likely to survive than their inferiors. These survivors would produce the most offspring, and the inherited attributes from the superior species would become the most common. Darwin called this process natural selection. He also decided that each species evolves to adapt to their environment, which is why similar species in different locations may have different traits.
Questions 1. What major additions did Lamarck make to the theory of his mentor, Buffon? 2. Describe the way in which Lamarck believed giraffes came to have long necks. 3. How did Lamarck propose species acquired new traits? 4. Which part of Lamarck's theory has been disproved by advances made in other fields of biology? 5. Why does the work of Lamarck was discredited? 6. What are the similarities between Lamarcks Theory of evolution and Darwins Theory of evolution? What are their differences?

Darwin's Hypothesis: Natural Selection


Fifty years after Lamarck published his ideas, Darwin published The Origin of Species, Darwin's theory that natural selection, or "survival of the fittest," was the driving force of evolution. 1. Overproduction: More offspring are produced than will ultimately survive and reproduce 2. Variation: Inheritable features vary from individual to individual. 3. Change in environment: Changes in climate, topography, food supply, predators, etc. 4. "Struggle for existence": Mainly competition within the species, for food, habitat, survival from being eaten 5. "Survival of the fit" (not necessarily the strongest): Those with more adaptive traits tend to survive longer and/or produce the most offspring; these are the "naturally selected". 6. Inheritance of "selected" features: Traits involved are already inheritable, but may involve new combinations. 7. New Species better adapted to the new environment: When the collective traits of the population differ significantly from the earlier population and when they can no longer reproduce with the earlier population.

Lamarck: The theory of transformation Jean-Baptiste de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck, was a French biologist at the end of the 18th century who suggested a theory as to how evolution occurs. Though he was building on the work of his mentor, Count George-Louis Leclerc de Buffon, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) is often credited with making the first large advance toward modern evolutionary theory because he was the first to propose a mechanism by which the gradual change of species might take place. Also, he extended the definition of the change over time, saying that life started out simple and became more complex. In 1809 he published Philosophie Zoologique, in which he described a two part mechanism by which change was gradually introduced into the species and passed down through generations. His theory is alternatively referred to as the theory of transformation or simply Lamarckism. Though today Lamarck's work is considered a major step forward, in his lifetime he did not receive much recognition.

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