Theories of Evolution

The main theories of evolution are –

I. Lamarckism or Theory of inheritance of Acquired characters.
II. Darwinism or Theory of Natural Selection
III. Mutation Theory by De Vries
IV. Neo-Darwinism or Modern concept or Synthetic theory of evolution

Lamarckism
 It is also called "Theory of Inheritance of Acquired characters".
 The theory states that the characters acquired by an organism in response to changes in the
environment or by use and disuse of an organ in their own life time, are inherited.

Postulates of Lamarckism

 i) New needs-
Changes in the environment lead to new needs or requirements.

 ii) Use and Disuse of an organ-

The new needs involve greater use of one organ and lesser use of other. More use makes the organ
more efficient and larger and lesser use leads to their degeneration. So Lamarckism is also known
as "Theory of Use and Disuse".

 iii) Inheritance of Acquired characters-

The acquired (more developed and efficient) character is inherited. This enables the offsprings to
face the changed environment.

 iv) Speciation –
New characters accumulate generation after generation and lead to formation of a new species.

Evidences in favour of Lamarckism

i) Giraffe- Development of present day long necked and long limbed Giraffe took place from a
horse like animal. To reach up to the leaves of tall trees (as short plants were not available due
to environmental changes), the extra use of limbs and neck resulted in their elongation. This
acquired character got inherited to the next generation, and the next generation Giraffes were
born with little longer necks.
ii) Snakes- Snakes have evolved from limbed reptiles but due to their fossorial mode of locomotion
did not use the limbs and so the limbs were lost.
iii) Aquatic birds - Due to their aquatic mode of life, wings are reduced (disuse) and skin folds
between toes (webs) developed (extra use).
iv) Flightless birds - Disuse of wings has led to their reduction in size and efficiency.
v) Horse- Ancestors of horse were short legged with more number of digits, as they started to live
on dry hard soil and became cursorial, the legs became longer and the digits reduced.
Critism of Lamarckism
 Biggest blow to Lamarckism came from the "Theory of Continuity of Germplasm", proposed by
August Weismann. This theory states that environmental factors affect only somatic cells and not
the germ cells. The changes in somatic cells are not inherited. Weismann mutilated the tails of mice
for about 22 generations and allowed the tailless mice to breed but never got tailless mice. Similarly
boring of pinna and nose in Indian women, tight waist in European ladies, small sized feet in Chinese
women etc. are not inherited to next generations.
 Eyes which are continuously being used develop defects instead of getting improved;
 Heart continuously working still the size does not increase.

As Lamarckism could not explain many such examples, it was rejected.

Darwinism
 It is also called – Theory of Natural Selection.
 Charles Darwin made extensive study of nature for over 20 years. He went on a voyage on the
famous ship the H.M.S. Beagle and explored South America, Galapagos Islands and other islands.
From the analysis of his data he got the idea of struggle for existence.
 Darwin explained the theory of evolution in his book titled "On the Origin of Species by means of
Natural Selection".

Postulates of Darwinism
1. Geometric increase - According to Darwinism the population size increases geometrically.
Reproductive power of organisms is much more than required.

2. Limited food and space - Food resources increase arithmetically and so act as limiting factor for
the growing populations.

3. Struggle for existence - Due to rapid increase in population and limited food and space, there is
competition and struggle for existence. Competitions can be intraspecific (between the members
of same species), interspecific (between the members of different species) or environmental.

4. Variations - Variation is the law of nature. Darwin stated that variations exist in populations and
they can be continuous or discontinuous (mutations). On the basis of their effect, the variations
can be harmful, useful or neutral. Darwin proposed that living organisms are able to adapt to
changing environment due to useful continuous variations, which give them competitive
advantage.

5. Natural Selection or Survival of the fittest - Nature selects individuals with useful variations from
a heterogeneous population, this was called Natural selection by Darwin and Survival of the
fittest by Wallace.
 6. Inheritance of the useful variations - Darwin stated that selected individuals pass the useful
variations to next generations and so the next generations are born fit to the changed
environment.

7. Speciation- According to Darwin, the useful variations keep accumulating over generations and
a new species is formed.

According to Darwinism, evolution is a gradual process and speciation occurs by gradual changes in the
existing species.

Principle of Natural Selection

 It was proposed by Ernst Mayer.
 The principle states that natural selection is a differential success in reproduction and enables
the organism to adapt to their environment and develop small and useful variations. These useful
variations accumulate over generations and lead to speciation.