1.  EVOLUTION  published
 Evolution An Essay on the Principle of Population
à Definition  THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Evolution Before Darwin
- gradual change over time
JEAN-BAPTISTE de LAMARCK
- L. e-, out + volvere, to roll
 French biologist
à Types
 proposed that modern species
GEOLOGIC EVOLUTION descended from other species
-Hutton and Lyell  Lamarckism based on two theories:
BIOLOGICAL or ORGANIC  Remember
EVOLUTION
 Tendency toward perfection
à The foundation of modern evolutionary
thought was described by Charles Darwin  Behavior has no effect on heritable trait
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY  BUT first to use scientific method in
Evolution Before Darwin understanding evolution
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY Example:
Evolution Before Darwin
The Evolution of the Giraffe
CARL Von LINNE
Giraffes obtained their long necks from
 Swedish botanist previous giraffes who stretched to eat the
leaves of high tree branches.
 worked on the classification of plants
Stretching increased the length of their necks,
 published Species Plantarum (~7,300 and this acquired characteristic was passed to
plants) the next generation.
 ordered classification of plants based  THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
on their similarities Evolution Before Darwin
à showed the natural relationships of Lamarckism
plants
 first to present a unified theory that
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY attempted to explain the changes in
Evolution Before Darwin organisms from one generation to the
THOMAS MALTHUS next
 economist & clergyman

2.  Although, mechanisms proposed for à geological change occurred slowly but
change was wrong, since acquired continuously by the process of Gradualism
characteristics are not heritable!!!
à sedimentary rock that encased fossils
à origin of species from formed by the gradual accumulation of
preexisting species sediments in bodies of water
à ability of organisms to adapt  THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Darwin’s Time (1800s)
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Darwin’s Time (1800s) CHARLES LYELL
GEORGES CUVIER  Scottish lawyer
 French anatomist and turned geologist
naturalist and writer  published
 paleontologist Principles of Geology
 strongly opposed the à Uniformitarianism - the processes that alter
the Earth are uniform through time
concept of evolution
à believed Hutton’s evidence for gradualism
à history of living organisms recorded in layers indicated that the earth was millions of years
of rock containing a succession of fossil species old
in chronological order
à believed that even the slow and subtle
à fossils were organisms that had died in a processes could cause substantial change over
series of catastrophes, after which extinct time
plants and animals were replaced by the
immigration of distant species to the  THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
devastated region à Catastrophism Darwin’s Time (1800s)
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY GEORGES CUVIER
Darwin’s Time (1800s)
JAMES HUTTON
JAMES HUTTON
CHARLES LYELL
 Scottish geologist
Geological evolution
 took up law, medicine
à the earth is very old and constantly
and agriculture changing
 published à life existed millions of years ago
Theory of the Earth

3.  geologists were convinced of an ancient ALFRED RUSSELL WALLACE
earth, but were at odds over how to
explain the appearance and  English naturalist
disappearance of species in the fossil  studied the Malay archipelago and
record Amazon
 Believed in special creation  proposed a theory of evolution similar
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY to Darwin’s
Darwin’s Time (1800s)  THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
GREGOR MENDEL Neo-Darwinian/Contemporary Times
 rediscovered Mendel’s laws of heredity
 Austrian biologist
 discovered the basic principles of  the start of rediscovering evolution in
terms of Mendel’s ideas
heredity
 father of Classical Genetics  THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Neo-Darwinian/Contemporary Times
à Individual characteristics determined by
inherited factors transmitted from parent to JAMES WATSON
offspring. FRANCIS CRICK
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY  elucidated the structure of DNA
Darwin’s Time (1800s) (genetic material)
CHARLES DARWIN  DNA contains coded information which
acts as a blueprint for the transfer of
 voyage on the H.M.S. Beagle (1836)
hereditary information from generation
 published (1859) to generation
The Origin of Species  mutation as the raw material for
evolution
 first person who proposed a
mechanistic approach to evolutionary
thought
 the father of synthetic evolution
 The Voyage of the Beagle
 On the Galapagos Islands...
 THE ROAD TO EVOLUTIONARY THEORY
Darwin’s Time (1800s)