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Lecture 2; Ch 2
The Development of Evolutionary Theory
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Last time in Anthr 1...
*Introduced the Anthropology
*Introduced Physical Anthropology
*Placed Physical Anthropology in a scientific context
*Overview of our course this semester
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Last time in Anthr 1...
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3. Physical Anthropology - A Survey - Paleoanthropology
Paleoanthropology - studies hominin
anatomical and behavioral evolution via
the fossil record
-Studies early human and humanlike
species
-organize a chronological sequence assess the relationships between fossil
specimens
Hominins - Members of the evolutionary
group which includes us and our
now-extinct biped relatives
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3. Physical Anthropology - A Survey - Primatology
Primatology - Studies the biology and
behavior of non-human primates
(lemurs, lorises, tarsiers, monkeys, and
apes)
-nonhuman primates help us better
understand the earliest stages of our
own evolutionary history among other
things.
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4. Scientific connects with Physical Anthropology
*Science and Scientific Tools
-Method to gather information in order to best explain the world around us.
Induction - bottom up, probability, degrees of confidence
Deduction - top down, necessary truths, possibility
Abduction - Hypotheses compete for the title of "best explanation" for a given
collection of evidence, observations, and/or data
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Unpacking Scientific Explanations
Explanatory Virtues
Testability - Does the hypothesis produce testable predictions or retrodictions?
Background Knowledge - Is the hypothesis consistent with the facts independent
of those it is trying to explain?
Informativeness - Does the hypothesis specify a causal mechanism allowing us to
identify precise effects?
Good explanations will have these explanatory virtues and poor explanations
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Precursors
Carolus Linnaeus
(1707-1778)
-Binomial Nomenclature
-Taxonomic classification of
biological organisms
John Ray (1627-1705)
-Identified reproductive
isolation of species
-First to use "species" and
"Genus"
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Precursors
Comte de Buffon
(1707-1788)
-Plants and animals
interacted with the
environment
-Changes in the environment
correlated with changes in
plants and animals
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Precursors - Dynamic Biology
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
(1744-1829)
-Species change influenced
by environmental change
-First to really attempt and
explain evolutionary process
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Precursors - Ancient age of the Earth
James Hutton (1726-1797)
-First to use
Uniformitarianism
*We can use the processes we
see today to explain the
geological history of our planet
Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
-Father of modern geology
-The processes happening
today were the same in the
past:
Uniformitarianism
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Precursors - Ancient age of the Earth
Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
-Father of modern geology
-The processes happening
today were the same in the
past:
Uniformitarianism
Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)
-Extinction
-Catastrophism
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Alfred Wallace (1823-1913)
-Independently generated the
concept of Natural Selection
-Father of Biogeography
Thomas Malthus (1766-1834)
-Populations grow exponentially
while food supplies/production
grow arithmetically
-Populations outgrow food
supply - survival of individuals
dependent on access to food
supply or resources
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Origins of the Origins
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
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