PCB4674 Exam 1 Notes
Module 1: History of Evolutionary Thought
The “Great Chain of Being”
- God Angels Demons Man Woman Animals Plants Minerals
Linneaus
- “Father of Taxonomy”
- Hierarchical classification of all life: Systema Naturae (1735)
Georges Buffon
- Argued that natural laws were required for explanation of natural phenomena
- Calculated an old earth (>70,000 years)
- Also wrote about heredity, formalized the notions of variation within species and
that offspring resemble their parents, even in other organisms
William Smith
- Surveyor of canal, railroads etc.
- Recognized same fossil assemblages in similar rocks
- Mapped stratigraphy in England (1815)
oRepresented the first systematic survey of the surface geology of England
Made possible by the widespread industrialization of the country
spurring new mines, railroads, and canals. These opened roadcuts
through hills, and allowed Smith to peer inside and describe the
stratigraphy
Erasmus Darwin
- Published a work on animal physiology in which he foreshadowed the evolutionary
ideas of Lamarck, that organisms were striving toward improvement, and those
improvements should be passed to the next generation
Lamarck
- Presented a potential mechanism of evolution in 1809:
oUse and disuse leads to developmental change and acquired characteristics
are inherited
- Published Flore francoise (1788) describing ~60 new species in the first work of its
kind
- Presented a potential mechanism of evolution in 1809: use and disuse leads to
developmental change and acquired characteristics are inherited
oImplied that new lineages were being constantly created to replace those
species that had improved to higher levels of development
