Introduction to Evolutionary Biology

Evolutionary Biology

 Is the study of patterns of organic diversity and the process that generates those
patterns.
Evolution

 The process by which different kinds of living organisms are thought to have developed
and diversified from earlier forms during the history of the earth.
Behavior

 It is a response of an organism to a stimulus.

Causes of Behavior
Proximate Causation

 mechanistic;
 it explains “HOW” actions occur.
Ultimate Causation

 explains “WHY” actions occur.

FACTS

 Fossils
 Bacteria in your intestine
 Apes to human
 Your parents to you
 Splitting
THEORY

 Evolution by Natural Selection

Evolution as a process and
Natural Selection as a mechanism
History and Evidence of EvolutionHistory and Evidence of Evolution
Intellectual Background to Darwin’s Discovery

 Can be traced back to Greek Philosophers

 World’s view of time was “Eternal World”
 Time was cyclical
Plato

 Dominated that primitive line of thinking for the next (approximately) 2,000 years.
 Plato was a philosopher during the 5th century BCE.
  Founded the Academy
 Wrote many philosophical texts
 His dogmas had the effect of being “antievolutionary”.
Essentialism

 Belief in a constant “eidos”

 Distinct from the phenomenon of appearance.
 Evolutionary thinking did not emerge.
Aristotle

 A great Naturalist and the founder of Natural History

Fall of Rome to Christianity

 The Word was written in the Bible

Rene Descartes, Isaac Newton

 Period of scientific reawakening took place (16th and 17th century).

 Cosmology discovered the infinity of space
Linnaeus

 Voracious cataloguer “for the great glory of God” (Systema Naturae, 1735).
15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries

 Age of discovery
Buffon

 Wrote Histoire Naturelle (1749-1788).

 Noted many of the species that Linnaeus had cataloged.
 Developed the discipline of Biogeography
Georges Cuvier (1796-1832)

 Founder of paleontology and comparative anatomy

 Catastrophism shaped the earth.
Uniformitarionism

 Proposed by James Hutton (1785)

William Smith (1815)

 Made uniformitarionism conceivable.

Sir Charles Lyell

 In Principles of Geology (1830)

 Formalized Hutton’s and Smith’s work in strong support of Uniformitarionism.
Lamarck

 Set the Scala Naturae in motion.

 Extinction was a problem, but “solved”
 Acknowledged that the environment was ever changing and created new “needs” in the
organism.
 Important (1): the environment did not directly induce the new characters, it stimulated
the organism to enhance these characters; Important (2): no volition invoked, stimulus
was a “need” not a “desire”.
Charles Darwin

 Claims he got NOTHING from Lamarck’s work.

 Regarded extinction as “true” happening.
 Considered evolution of species.
 His road to discovery is a model for many organismal biologists.