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CHAPTER 2
The Development of Evolutionary Theory
 Chapter Outline

¨ Introduction
¨ A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought
¨ Natural Selection
¨ Constraints on Nineteenth-Century Evolutionary
Theory
¨ Opposition to Evolution Today

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 Focus Questions

¨ What are the major developments in scientific

thinking that led to the discovery of evolutionary
processes?
¨ How does natural selection work to cause
evolutionary change?
¨ What are some of the limitations and gaps of
evolutionary theory?
¨ What is the history of opposition to the theory of
evolution in the U.S.?
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Introduction: Evolution

¨ Evolution is the most fundamental of all

biological processes, and yet it’s one of the
most misunderstood.
¨ Humans evolved from a species that lived

some 6-8 million years ago (mya), not from

monkeys or chimpanzees.
¨ Humans do share a recent common ancestor

with other primates.

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Introduction: Evolution Is a Theory

¨ In science, a theory is something that has been tested

and shows robust evidentiary support.
¤ The theory has been tested and subjected to
verification through accumulated evidence (and has
not been disproved)
¤ The theory of evolution has been supported by a
mounting body of genetic evidence.
¤ The theory has stood the test of time.

¤ The theory continues to grow.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought

¨ Evolutionary principles were developed in western

Europe, made possible by scientific thinking dating to the
16th century.
¨ Western science, however, borrowed ideas from Arab,
Indian, and Chinese cultures where notions of biological
evolution had already developed.
¨ By the 19th century, evolution was not a new concept, but
Natural Selection was a new theory.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary
Thought: Natural Selection
¨ Natural selection, first explained by Charles Darwin,
refers to genetic change or changes in the
frequencies of certain traits in populations due to
differential reproductive success between individuals.
¨ Natural selection is the most critical mechanism of
evolutionary change.
¤ Many of these same conclusions were
independently reached by Alfred Russel Wallace.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary
Thought: Fixity of Species

¨ This concept popular in the Middle

Ages was the notion that species,
once created, never changed.
¨ It is an idea opposed to theories
of biological evolution.
¨ To challenge the idea was to
challenge the “argument from
design” (that life was engineered
perfectly by a purposeful God).

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A Brief History of Evolutionary
Thought: The Scientific Revolution

¨ The Scientific Revolution began developing with the

discovery of the New World and circumnavigation
of the globe in the 15th century.
¤ This introduced new ideas and challenged
fundamental views about the planet.
¤ There was exposure to new plants and animals
and increased awareness of biological diversity.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Challenges to Traditional Beliefs
¨ Aristotle taught that the sun and planets existed in
a series of concentric spheres that revolved around
the earth.
¨ Copernicus challenged the idea that the earth was
the center of the universe.
¤ He is credited with removing the earth as the
center of all things.
¨ Galileo s work supported the idea that the
universe was a place of motion and the sun was at
its center.
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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Aristotle s View

¨ This 17th century map shows

the earth at the center of
the solar system.
¨ Ideas generated out of the
Scientific Revolution
challenged such long-
standing beliefs.
¨ Aristotle argued that the sun
and the planets revolved
around the. earth.
A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (1/2)
¨ John Ray, a minister educated at Cambridge University,
developed the concept of species.
¤ He recognized that groups of plants and animals could
be differentiated from other groups by their ability to
mate with one another and produce offspring.
¤ He placed such groups of reproductively isolated
organisms into a single category, which he called the
species.
¤ Species which shared characteristics with other species
were grouped at a level called the genus.
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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (2/2)

¨ Carolus Linnaeus was a Swedish naturalist who

developed a method of classifying plants and animals.
¤ In Systema Naturae, first published in 1735, he
standardized Ray s use of genus and species
terminology and established the system of binomial
nomenclature.
¤ He added two more categories: class and order.
¨ Linnaeus four-level system became the basis for
taxonomy.
¨ However, Linnaeus still believed in the fixity of species.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary
Thought: Binomial Nomenclature
¨ In taxonomy, this is the convention established by
Carolus Linnaeus whereby genus and species names
are used to refer to species.

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QUESTIONS
¨ In what ways did religious beliefs and philosophies
intersect with the development of science?

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (1/3)
¨ George-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788),
recognized the dynamic relationship between the external
environment and living forms.
¤ Although he never discussed the diversification of life
over time, he recognized that different regions have
different plants and animals and that alterations of the
external environment (such as climate) were agents of
change.
¤ Some scientists today (Ernst Mayr) credit Leclerc as the
“father of evolutionism.”

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (2/3)
¨ Erasmus Darwin was Charles Darwin s grandfather.
¤ Physician, poet, and leading member of an intellectual
community in England.
¤ In a poem, he expressed the view that life had
originated in the seas and that all species descended
from a common ancestor.
¤ Charles Darwin read his grandfather s writings, but
how much he was influenced by them is unknown.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (3/3)
¨ Jean-Baptiste Lamarck developed a theory to
explain the evolutionary process, known as the
inheritance of acquired characteristics.
¤ An example is the giraffe: having stripped the leaves
from the lower branches of a tree, the animal tries to
reach leaves on upper branches and the neck becomes
longer. This longer neck is then passed on to offspring.
¨ The theory suggested a dynamic relationship
between the species and environment.
¨ This is also sometimes referred to as the “use-disuse
theory.”
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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Lamarck s View of Evolution
¨ Acquired characteristics can be passed to offspring.
As short-necked giraffes stretched to reach higher
foods their necks grew longer and they passed this
on to their offspring.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Darwin-Wallace View of Evolution
¨ The theory of natural selections looks at the same scenario
differently: in this case, environment favors individuals
with long necks.
¨ Those individuals with pre-existing (genetic) long necks
have an advantage they pass to their offspring.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Georges Cuvier and Catastrophism
¨ An opponent to Lamarck, Cuvier explained the fossil
record as the result of a succession of catastrophes
followed by new creation events.
¨ Catastrophism argues that the earth s geological
landscape is the result of violent cataclysmic events.
¤ Cuvier introduced the concept of extinction.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (1/2)
¨ Thomas Malthus was the author of an essay that inspired
both Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace in their
separate discoveries of natural selection.
¤ Was arguing for limits of human population growth, not
concerned with how species change.
¤ Argued that in nature there is a tendency for animal
populations to increase in size, while the availability of
resources remains relatively the same.
¤ The limits for populations to increase is controlled by
availability of resources.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Precursors to the Theory of Evolution (2/2)

¨ Charles Lyell was a lawyer,

geologist, and friend of Charles
Darwin.
¨ Before meeting Darwin in 1836,
Lyell had earned acceptance in
Europe s most prestigious
scientific circles for his book,
Principles of Geology.
¨ He contributed to the geological
theory called uniformitarianism.
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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Uniformitarianism
¨ The theory that the earth s features are the result
of long-term natural processes (i.e. wind, water
erosion, local flooding, frost, decomposition,
volcanoes, earthquakes, and glacial movements)
that continue to operate in the present as they did
in the past.
¨ Proposed by James Hutton, elaborated on by Lyell,
this theory opposed catastrophism and contributed
strongly to the concept of immense geological time.
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A Brief History of Evolutionary
Thought: Evidence of Evolution

Mary Anning in
England
discovered
many fossil
species there
including
These limestone cliffs in
Pleiosaurus, an
southern France were formed
ocean-dwelling
around 300 million years ago
reptile.
from shells and the skeletal
remains of countless sea
creatures. .
A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
¨ He grew up in an educated family
with ties to intellectual circles.
¨ His ideas were formed while serving
as a naturalist on HMS Beagle.
¨ Darwin saw the importance of
biological variation within a species.
¨ Recognized that sexual reproduction
increased variation, but did not know
why.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
The Route of the HMS Beagle

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
The Discovery of Natural Selection
¨ Darwin recognized that in undomesticated organisms
the selective agent was nature and that biological
variation within species was crucial.
¨ He also realized that sexual reproduction increased
variation.
¨ From Malthus, he agreed that population increase at a
faster rate than available resources and this leads to a
“struggle for existence.”

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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection

¨ The idea that in each generation there are more

offspring born than can survive.
¨ There is a constant competition for resources.
¨ There is biological diversity.
¤ Of this Darwin wrote: “It at once struck me that
under these circumstances favourable variations
would tend to be preserved, and unfavourable
ones to be destroyed. The result would be the
formation of a new species.”
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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Beak Variation in Darwin’s Finches

¨ The four Galápagos finches below have variable

beaks depending on their adaptation: heavy, thick,
straight, and slender.

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A Brief History of Evolutionary
Thought: Domestic Dogs

¨ All domestic dogs share a common ancestor, the wolf.

The extreme variation exhibited by dog breeds
today has been achieved in a relatively short time
through artificial selection.
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A Brief History of Evolutionary Thought:
Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913)
¨ Published an article suggesting that current species
descended from other species and the appearance
of new species was influenced by environmental
factors.
¨ His work prompted Darwin to move forward with
publishing his own book, On the Origin of Species.

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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(1 of 8)
1. All species are capable of producing offspring at a
faster rate than food supplies increase.

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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(2 of 8)
1. All species are capable of producing offspring at a
faster rate than food supplies increase.
2. There is biological variation within all species.

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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(3 of 8)
1. All species are capable of producing offspring at a
faster rate than food supplies increase.
2. There is biological variation within all species.
3. In each generation, more individuals are produced
than can survive, and because of limited resources,
there is competition among individuals.

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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(4 of 8)
1. All species are capable of producing offspring at a faster
rate than food supplies increase.
2. There is biological variation within all species.
3. In each generation, more individuals are produced than can
survive, and because of limited resources, there is
competition among individuals.
4. Individuals possessing favorable variations or traits
have an advantage over those who do not. In other
words, have greater fitness because favorable traits
increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction.
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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(5 of 8)
5. The environmental context determines whether or not a
trait is beneficial. Hence, favorable traits that become
most advantageous are the results of a natural process.

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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(6 of 8)
5. The environmental context determines whether or not a trait
is beneficial. Hence, favorable traits that become most
advantageous are the results of a natural process.
6. Traits are inherited and passed on to the next generation.
Because individuals who possess favorable traits
contribute more offspring to the next generation, they are
said to have a greater reproductive success, or fitness.

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Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(7 of 8)
5. The environmental context determines whether or not a trait
is beneficial. Hence, favorable traits that become most
advantageous are the results of a natural process.
6. Traits are inherited and passed on to the next generation.
Because individuals who possess favorable traits contribute
more offspring to the next generation, they are said to have
a greater reproductive success, or fitness.
7. Successful variations accumulate over long periods of
time, so later generations may be distinct from ancestral
ones. A new species may appear.

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 Natural Selection: 8 Basic Processes
(8 of 8)
5. The environmental context determines whether or not a trait is
beneficial. Hence, favorable traits that become most advantageous
are the results of a natural process.
6. Traits are inherited and passed on to the next generation. Because
individuals who possess favorable traits contribute more offspring to
the next generation, they are said to have a greater reproductive
success, or fitness.
7. Successful variations accumulate over long periods of time, so later
generations may be distinct from ancestral ones. A new species may
appear.
8. Geographical isolation contributes to formation of new
species as individuals adapt to different environments
and respond to different selective pressures.
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QUESTIONS
¨ What is the role of natural selection in our day-to-
day lives as a species?

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Natural Selection: Fitness

¨ Fitness is a measure of relative reproductive success

of individuals.
¨ Fitness can be measured by an individual s genetic
contribution to the next generation compared to
that of other individuals.

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Natural Selection: Reproductive
Success
¨ The number of offspring an individual produces and
rears too reproductive age; this is an individual’s
genetic contribution to the next generation.

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Natural Selection: Selective Pressures
¨ Selective pressures are forces in the environment
that influence reproductive success in individuals.
¤ They cause distinct species to develop.

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Natural Selection: The Peppered Moth

¨ A well-known case is that of the

peppered moth:
¤ Pre-industrial England the moth
was a mottled gray color with
camouflaged with the lichen on
the trees.
¤ When coal dust began
covering the foliage in 19th-
century England, the lichen
died and the tree bark was a
darker color.
¤ Those moths which were darker
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were favorably selected.
Natural Selection: Fundamentals of
Evolutionary Change

1. A trait must be inherited if natural selection is to act

on it.
2. Natural selection cannot occur without population
variation in inherited characteristics.
3. Fitness is a relative measure that changes as the
environment changes.
4. Natural selection can only act on traits that affect
reproduction.

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Natural Selection: Fertility

¨ The ability to conceive and produce healthy

offspring.
¤ An animal that gives birth to more young passes
its genes on a faster rate than one that bears few
offspring.
¤ An important element, however, is also the
number of young raised successfully to the point
where they reproduce, or differential net
reproductive success.
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Constraints on 19th
-Century
Evolutionary Theory: Genome
¨ With the discovery of the structure of DNA came
the understanding of the genome – the entire
genetic makeup of an individual or species.
¤ Human and chimpanzee genomes were sequenced in
2003 and 2005, respectively.

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Opposition to Evolution Today:
Biological Continuity
¨ Refers to a biological continuum.
¤ When expressions of a phenomenon continuously grade
into one another so that there are no discrete categories,
they exist on a continuum.
¤ Color is one such phenomenon, and life-forms are
another.
¨ Most people hold to belief systems that do not
emphasize this or offer scientific explanations.

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Opposition to Evolution Today

¨ Religion and science concern different aspects of the

human experience, and they are not inherently mutually-
exclusive categories.
¤ Belief in God does not exclude the possibility of biological
evolution; acknowledgement of evolutionary processes does
not preclude the existence of God.
¨ Evolutionary theories are not rejected by all religions or
even by most forms of Christianity.
¤ The Catholic Church and most denominations of Protestants
accept the general principles of evolution.
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Opposition to Evolution Today: Scopes
Monkey Trial

• Clarence Darrow
sitting on the edge of
the table; John Scopes
sitting with arms
folded behind Darrow.
• This occurred in 1925
in Dayton, Tennessee.

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Opposition to Evolution Today:
Christian Fundamentalists
¨ Adherents to a movement in American Protestantism
that began in the early twentieth century.
¨ This group holds that the teachings of the Bible are
infallible and are to be taken literally.
¤ They have renewed their campaign to have
evolution taken out of public school classes.
¤ Out of this movement creation science began.

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Opposition to Evolution Today:
Creation Science, Intelligent Design

¨ Argue that creation science and intelligent design (ID)

is as much a scientific endeavor as is evolution and
suggest scientific evidence to support creationist views.
¨ They argue that both positions should be presented in
a balanced manner. However, Creation Science and
ID are not science.
¤ Creationists argue their view is absolute and
fallible, which is counter to science which seeks
testable hypotheses.
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Why It Matters (1 of 2)

¨ One of the greatest controversies regarding

education in the United States and other parts of
the world is the teaching of evolution.
¨ Without this fundamental science background, we
face greater contemporary health challenges, such
as antibiotic strains of bacteria.
¨ Future doctors and researchers must have a
background in evolution in order to work effectively
in the health fields.

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Why It Matters (2 of 2)
Example: H1N1 flu viruses are the result of viruses
evolving or changing in form.
¨ Medical researchers try to predict which of several
strains will pose the most serious threat and try to
develop a vaccine that targets that specific evolving
strain.
¤ The pace of change in pathogens can exceed that of the
antibiotics designed to defeat them.

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Why It Matters: Are We Still
Evolving?
¨ Humans today are still subject to natural selection,
even though modern medicine has buffered us
against some of its effects:
¤ In two well-known cases (preindustrial French-
Canadian population and in Boston,
Massachusetts population), we have evidence of
the age at first birth has dropped due to natural
selection.