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Topic 10: How do living things evolve? Inorganic to Organic • How could life have begun? Miller & Urey – 1953 Simulated Earth’s early atmosphere Mixed H2, CH4, NH3 (important no Oxygen) Produced organic molecules from inorganic molecules Evolution doesn’t depend on how life first began but instead Evolution deals with the mechanisms of change Biological Evolution Simple – species change over time Complex – allele frequencies in populations change over time Early Evolutionary Thought Anaximander (611 – 547 BC) Earth was first in a liquid state Humans evolved from fishlike creatures who left the water Empedocles (400’s BC) Humans and animals arose as various body parts joined together randomly Some unable to reproduce, become extinct, others thrived (natural selection ??) Lucretius (94 – 55 BC) Wrote about: . . . the preservation of animal life in accordance with the law of the survival of the fittest Plato (427? – 347 BC) Ultimate reality ideal “forms” On Earth imperfect copies Variation not important Aristotle (384 – 322 BC) Species unchanging “ideal form” Successful creatures “perfecting” principle” Variation is “noise” Scala Naturae Fixed species Hierarchical scale Perfecting principle Variation - noise Important ideas prevail Fixed unchanging Species Scala Naturae (simple complex) “Perfecting principle” Variation is not important Christian Philosophy God Creation No organisms appeared or disappeared and no change Humans unique James Ussher (1581 – 1656) Irish Prelate & Biblical Scholar Creation on 22 Oct 4004 BC at 9:00 AM Static, divinely ordered world Predominant way of thinking not only in religion and philosophy but also in science Natural Theology Nature of God understood by reference to His creation natural world Inspired naturalists to look at form in the context of function laid the groundwork for evolutionary studies of adaptation and fitness John Ray (1628-1705) “Father” of Natural History in Britain Searched for the “natural system” classification of organisms reflecting Divine Order of creation Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) To discover order in the diversity of life “for the greater glory of God” William Paley (1743 – 1805) The metaphor of the watchmaker . . . when we come to inspect the watch, we perceive. . . that its several parts are framed and put together for a purpose, e.g. that they are so formed and adjusted as to produce motion, and that motion so regulated as to point out the hour of the day; that if the different parts had been differently shaped from what they are, or placed after any other manner or in any other order than that in which they are placed, either no motion at all would have been carried on in the machine, or none which would have answered the use that is now served by it. . . . . . . . the inference we think is inevitable, that the watch must have had a maker -- that there must have existed, at some time and at some place or other, an artificer or artificers who formed it for the purpose which we find it actually to answer, who comprehended its construction and designed its use. Living organisms, are even more complicated than watches, "in a degree which exceeds all computation." How else to account for the often amazing adaptations of animals and plants? Only an intelligent Designer could have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch: Only an intelligent Designer could have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch: That designer must have been a person. That person is GOD. Challenges to Established Views Astronomy Nicholas Copernicus (1473 – 1543) Heliocentric Model Challenges to Established Views Global Exploration New areas -- new information Plants and animals never seen before Challenges to Established Views Geology Existence of Fossils Species extinction Age of Earth Fossils Extinct species? Where did they come from? Why did they die out? Cuvier – (1769 – 1832) Theory of Catastrophe (multiple creations separated by catastrophes) World and inhabitants stable and specially created Earth is older than scriptures suggest James Hutton- (1726 – 1797) “1st” scientific challenge to static world Geological processes constant Earth very old Lyell (1797 – 1875) Theory of Uniformitarianism Natural laws constant in time & space Events of the past explained by processes observed today Geological changes occur slowly and gradually not as catastrophes Erasmus Darwin - (1731 – 1802) Charles Darwin’s Grandfather Formulated one of the early theories of evolution But no mechanism Suggestions organisms could evolve no one explanation how and why organisms changed over time Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744 – 1829) Mechanism for Evolution Interaction of organisms and environment LaMarck - Philosophie zoologique "First Law" use or disuse causes structures to enlarge or shrink "Second Law" all such changes were heritable. Lamarckian Giraffes Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck Incorrect Assumptions Theory teleological (goal directed) Characteristics acquired during life of organism passed on to their offspring Charles Darwin - (1809 – 1882) Enter Charles Darwin Physician -Theologian Naturalist Prevailing view one of God’s static & perfect world Darwin on the HMS Beagle Joined as the “Naturalist” Primary commission of the Beagle was to map the coastlines and harbors of South America Route of the Beagle Major impacts on Darwin’s thinking as he sailed on the HMS Beagle Observes shell exposed bed on land (some shells same as modern species) must have been underwater at one time, then uplifted January 16, 1832, the H.M.S. Beagle, made its first stop at São Tiago in the Cape Verde islands off the west coast of Africa. Years later, Charles Darwin wrote: "The geology of St. Iago is very striking yet simple: a stream of lava formerly flowed over the bed of the sea, formed of triturated recent shells and corals, which it baked into a hard white rock. Since then the whole island has been upheaved. But the line of white rock revealed to me a new and important fact, namely that there had been afterwards subsidence round the craters, which had since been in action, and had poured forth lava. It then first dawned on me that I might write a book on the geology of the countries visited, and this made me thrill with delight. That was a memorable hour to me. . . .” (Autobiography, p. 81). Darwin experiences an earthquake in Chile . . . “I happened to be on shore . . . Lying in the woods to rest myself. It came on suddenly and lasted two minutes, but the time appeared much longer. The motion made me almost giddy: it was something like . . . That felt by a person skating over thin ice, which bends under the weight of the body.” Fossils of extinct animals Fossils outnumber living forms? Driven to extinction? Biological - Diversity of Plants & animals Huge diversity of plants and animals Differ from continent to continent Rhea (4), Emu (6), Ostrich (8) Separation caused differences Biology Galapagos Islands Island organisms (endemic) similar to mainland organisms tortoises & finches Dome-shaped tortoises are found on high, humid islands Saddle-backed tortoises are found on low, arid islands “Darwin’s Finches Different species with different shaped beaks All descendents of mainland ground finch Return Home Discussed ideas – wrote brief essay (early 1840’s) Worked on other studies rather than publish “evolution” Read Malthus (and others) Letter from Wallace On the Origin of Species Published on 24 November 1859 20+ years after voyage