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Evolutionary Thought
General Bio II
Introduction to the Subject of Evolution
•Question:
How did we not evolve from
monkeys or chimpanzees?
Introduction to the Subject of Evolution
• Answer:
• Humans are just more closely related to modern apes than
to monkeys, but we didn’t evolve from apes, either.
Humans share a common ancestor with modern African
apes. Scientists believe this common ancestor existed 5 to
8 million years ago. Shortly thereafter, the species
diverged into two separate lineages. One of these lineages
ultimately evolved into gorillas and chimps, and the other
evolved into early human ancestors called HOMINIDS.
What is
EVOLUTION?
What is EVOLUTION?
A. Carolus Linnaeus
• Carolus Linnaeus (mid-1700’) was a Swedish
biologist who established a simple system
for classifying and naming organisms.
• He developed a Hierarchy (a ranking
system) for classifying organisms that is the
Basis for Modern Taxonomy.
• For this reason, he is considered to be
“father” of modern taxonomy.
A. Carolus Linnaeus
B. Thomas Malthus
• In the late 1700’s, a British economist Thomas Malthus
concluded that the rate of population was growing at a
faster rate than agricultural productivity.
• Malthus coined the term overpopulation.
• In 1798, at 32 years old British he anonymously published a
lengthy pamphlet criticizing the views of the Utopians who
believed that life could and would definitely improve for
humans on earth, titled An Essay on the Principle of
Population.
B. Thomas Malthus
C. George Cuvier
• French scientist who developed the science of
paleontology (the study of fossils).
• He noticed that organisms found in lower layers of
sedimentary rock were dissimilar to organisms
found today, and as you continue up the layers the
organisms begin to more closely resemble modern
day organisms.
• He found that rocks deeper in the Earth had much
different fossils than anything that was walking
around during his life time.
C. George Cuvier
D. James Hutton
• Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726-1797) can
rightly be regarded as the father of modern
geology.
• In geology, gradualism is a theory developed by
James Hutton according to which profound
changes to the Earth, such as the Grand
Canyon, are due to slow continuous processes
and not to catastrophes as proposed by the
theory of catastrophism.
D. James Hutton
• Gradualism - states that geological changes are slow
and gradual and take long periods of time.
• This theory inspired an evolution theory in
paleontology, also called gradualism, according to
which the species appeared by the gradual
transformation of ancestral species.
• According to this theory, the population of a species is
transformed slowly and progressively into a new
species by the accumulation of micro-evolutionary
changes in the genetic heritage.
D. James Hutton
• Hutton proposes that Earth is shaped by geological forces that took
place over extremely long periods of time. He estimates Earth to
be millions-not thousands-of years old.
• Hutton had argued that the Earth was transformed not by
unimaginable catastrophes but by imperceptibly slow changes,
many of which we can see around us today.
• It was not until the third version of the Theory of the Earth was
published when Hutton introduced his theory of gradualism. This is
where he recognized that change did occur, but that change was
the gradual culmination of slow processes happening over great
amounts of time.
Early scientists who contributed or presented
ideas about how evolution occurs:
E. Charles Lyell
• In the second and final volume of Principles of
Geology, Lyell explains that processes occurring
now have shaped Earth's geological features over
long periods of time.
• In it, he advanced the idea that the Earth
gradually changes over time. Importantly, he
argued that geological processes that changed
the Earth were all occurring now. Given
sufficient time, the Earth can change a lot. This
idea is called uniformitarianism.
E. Charles Lyell
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
• Lamarck's proposed the first truly
cohesive theory of evolution, in which all
organisms had an innate tendency toward
perfection.
• He correctly argued that species change
over time, and that environmental forces
adapted them to local environments.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
• EXAMPLE:
• 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.
• The neck becomes slightly longer.
• The longer neck is passed on to offspring.
Lamarck – Contributions