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Lesson 1 Development of Evolutionary Thought

The document outlines key contributors to the development of evolutionary thought, including Carolus Linnaeus, Thomas Malthus, Georges Cuvier, James Hutton, Charles Lyell, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, and Charles Darwin. Each figure is associated with significant theories and concepts that shaped the understanding of evolution, such as taxonomy, population dynamics, and natural selection. The document emphasizes the gradual acceptance of evolutionary ideas against the backdrop of creationism.

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Lesson 1 Development of Evolutionary Thought

The document outlines key contributors to the development of evolutionary thought, including Carolus Linnaeus, Thomas Malthus, Georges Cuvier, James Hutton, Charles Lyell, Jean Baptiste Lamarck, and Charles Darwin. Each figure is associated with significant theories and concepts that shaped the understanding of evolution, such as taxonomy, population dynamics, and natural selection. The document emphasizes the gradual acceptance of evolutionary ideas against the backdrop of creationism.

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wowitspizza
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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•

Jumpstart

A major obstacle in the acceptance of the idea that organisms change over
time was the belief of the general public in the doctrine of creationism.

Activity 1:

Directions: Identify the people on the pictures below and their contributions
in the development of evolutionary thought . Choose your answer from the box.

1. =
2. =

3. =

4 =

5. =

(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Discover

Core Concepts:

• Early scientists who contributed in shaping and developing evolutionary thought.

Carolus Linnaeus
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Linnaeus)

• Swedish naturalist and explorer that was the first to frame principles for defining
natural genera and species of organisms and to create a uniform system for naming
them, known as binomial nomenclature.

• Linnaean System of Classification


❖ The most influential early classification system was developed by
Carolus Linnaeus. In fact, all modern classification systems have their
roots in Linnaeus’ system. Linnaeus was a Swedish botanist who
lived during the 1700s. He is known as the “father of taxonomy.”
Linnaeus tried to describe and classify the entire known natural
world. In 1735, he published his classification system in a work called
Systema Naturae (“System of Nature”).
❖ The taxa are below:
o Kingdom - This is the highest taxon in Linnaean taxonomy,
representing major divisions of organisms. Kingdoms of
organisms include the plant and animal kingdoms.
o Phylum (plural, phyla) - This taxon is a division of a kingdom.
Phyla in the animal kingdom include chordates (animals with an
internal skeleton) and arthropods (animals with an external
skeleton).
o Class - This taxon is a division of a phylum. Classes in the
chordate phylum include mammals and birds.
o Order - This taxon is a division of a class. Orders in the
mammal class include rodents and primates.
o Family - This taxon is a division of an order. Families in the
primate order include hominids (apes and humans) and
hylobatids (gibbons).
o Genus - This taxon is a division of a family. Genera in the hominid
family include Homo (humans) and Pan (chimpanzees).
o Species - This taxon is below the genus and the lowest taxon
in Linnaeus’ system. Species in the Pan genus include Pan
troglodytes(common chimpanzees) and Pan paniscus (pygmy
chimpanzees).

Thomas Malthus
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Robert_Malthus)

• An English cleric, scholar and influential economist in the fields of political


economy and demography.
• Author of the 1798 book, An Essay on the Principle of Population.
• He observed that an increase in a nation's food production improved the well-
being of the populace, but the improvement was temporary because it led to
population growth, which in turn restored the original per capita production level.
In other words, humans had a propensity to utilize abundance for population
growth rather than for maintaining a high standard of living, a view that has
become known as the "Malthusian trap" or the "Malthusian spectre". Populations
had a tendency to grow until the lower class suffered hardship, want and greater
susceptibility to famine and disease, a view that is sometimes referred to as
a Malthusian catastrophe. Malthus wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-
century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible.

• Father of Paleontology
• Theory of Catastrophism = boundaries represent
floods, droughts, etc. that destroyed many species
living at that time
• According to him, fossils are remains of extinct
life forms

Georges Cuvier
(Source: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Georges-Cuvier)
James Hutton
(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hutton)

• Theory of Gradualism = Profound changes can result from cumulative effect of


slow but continuous processes.
• Proposed that the Earth was shaped by geological forces occurring over very long
periods of time, and is MILLIONS not THOUSANDS of years old.

Charles Lyell
(Source: https://www.sciencephoto.com/media/717890/view/sir-charles-lyell-british-geologist)

• Principles of Geology = argued that the formation of Earth's crust took place
through countless small changes occurring over vast periods of time, all according
to known natural laws. His "uniformitarian" proposal was that the forces molding
the planet today have operated continuously throughout its history. He also
wrongly assumed that these causes must have acted only with the same intensities
now observed, which would rule out asteroid impacts and the like.

Jean Baptiste Lamarck


(Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck)
• One of first scientists to recognize that living things changed over time and that
all species were descended from other species.
• Lamarckism
- He proposed that the characteristics that an animal acquired during its
lifetime in response to life’s struggles or felt needs could be passed on to
its offspring
• 1809- Published his ideas about “Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics”

The inheritance of such a characteristic


means its reappearance in one or more
individuals in the next or in succeeding
generations. An example would be found
in the supposed inheritance of a change
brought about by the use and disuse of a
special organ.

Charles Darwin
(Source: https://www.thoughtco.com/interesting-facts-about-charles-darwin-1224479)
Evolution of Darwin’s Theory
• His voyage and his observations led him to write ‘The Origin of Species
• In 1831, 22-year old Charles Darwin left England as naturalist aboard the HMS
Beagle for 5 year voyage around the world. His mission is to chart the South
American coastline
• He noticed plants and animals were different from those he knew in Europe
• He wrote thousands of pages of observations and collected vast number of
Specimens.
• He spent a month observing life on the Galapagos Islands and realized that each
island has different rainfall and vegetation and its own unique assortment of plant
and animal species.
• He collected 14 species of finches and hypothesized that the Galapagos had be
colonized by organisms from the mainland that had then diversified on the various.
• In 1859 , his book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
was published. It presented evidence and proposed a mechanism for evolution
that he called NATURAL SELECTION.
• It took Darwin years to form his theory of evolution by natural selection. His
reasoning went like this:
1. Like Lamarck, Darwin assumed that species can change over time. The
fossils he found helped convince him of that.
2. From Lyell, Darwin saw that Earth and its life were very old. Thus, there
had been enough time for evolution to produce the great diversity of life Darwin
had observed.
3. From Malthus, Darwin knew that populations could grow faster than their
resources. This “overproduction of offspring” led to a “struggle for existence,” in
Darwin’s words.
4. From artificial selection, Darwin knew that some offspring have variations
that occur by chance, and that can be inherited. In nature, offspring with
certain variations might be more likely to survive the “struggle for existence”
and reproduce. If so, they would pass their favorable variations to their
offspring.
5. Darwin coined the term fitness to refer to an organism’s relative ability to
survive and produce fertile offspring. Nature selects the variations that are most
useful. Therefore, he called this type of selection natural selection.
6. Darwin knew artificial selection could change domestic species over time.
He inferred that natural selection could also change species over time. In fact,
he thought that if a species changed enough, it might evolve into a new species.

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