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Chronology of
Evolution Theory
Curriculum Outcomes
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Students will be expected to:
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Describe historical and cultural contexts that have
changed evolutionary concepts (316-1)
Describe the importance of peer review in the
development of evolutionary knowledge (114-5)
Explain how knowledge of evolution evolves as new
evidence comes to light and as laws and theories are
tested and subsequently restricted, revised, or
replaced (115-7)
Theories About
the Origin of Life
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Three possible ways that life could have
come into existence:
A.
B.
C.
Random, natural unguided forces or
processes
Designed and created by a designer
Self-generation or ability to create, inherent
or designed into matter.
Judeo-Christian-Islamic
Tradition
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God created Earth and Heaven
Separated light from dark/sea from sky
Created plants and animals
Created “mankind”
Scientific
Perspective
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Present universe
created from “Big Bang”
Earth coalesced from
projected material
Vulcanism of Earth’s crust created atmosphere and oceans
Producers then consumers developed through a set of
random chemical interactions
Gradual, random change in genetic chemistry that
improved survivability caused the evolution of organisms
HISTORY OF THEORIES
ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF LIFE
History of Biology/Evolution
Xenophanes
(570-475 BCE)
Greek philosopher,
poet, religious and
social critic
Examined fossils
Plato (427-347 BCE)
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Plato was a student of Socrates
345 B.P. Plato's Theory of Forms said all life
forms represent an imperfect replica of a perfect
heavenly model.
Speusippus
(408-339 BCE) wrote books on biological
classification before Aristotle
Leonardo da Vinci
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(1452-1519) is
known as an artist
but was also an
anatomist.
He dissected hundreds of specimens
and drew exact copies of them
Conrad Gessner
(1516-1565)
his three-volume
Historia Animalium
is considered
the beginning of
modern zoology
Archbishop James Ussher
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Born January 4, 1581
Archbishop of Armagh
1650 - “Annales veteris
testamenti, a prima mundi
origine deducti”
Creation on evening of
October 23, 4004 BC
Died March 21, 1656
Marcello Malpighi
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(1628-1694) was an Italian doctor, who gave
his name to several physiological features.
He was pioneer in using a microscope and he
has also been described as a founder of
comparative physiology and microscopic
anatomy.
Robert Hooke
(1635-1703)
coined the
biological term
“cell”
Comte de Buffon
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Born September 7, 1707
1750 - Histoire naturelle, générale et
particulière
Living creatures evolve according
to natural laws
Hypothesized that the “creation of
species” did not occur in one single
place;
Suggests humans and apes related!!!
Died April 16, 1788
Pierre Louis de Maupertuis
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French mathematician
One of earliest scholars to propose
a rudimentary explanation of
evolution
1751 wrote: “ the multiplication of
species was a result of accidental
recombination of elementary
particles leading to offspring that
differed from their ancestral
forms.”
Carol Linnaeus
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Swedish botanist
1760 raised Buffon’s unorthodox
viewpoint
Founder of binomial nomenclature
(system of naming organisms based
on physical features)
His work of organizing the biological
world into kingdoms, families,
species, etc. is still being used today.
Because of his work, scientists today
can refer to an animal by a specific
name and it is understood worldwide.
Erasmus Darwin
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Born December 12, 1731
Charles Darwin’s grandfather
1794 – Zoonomia - attempted to
explain organic life according to
evolutionary principles.
First true ‘evolutionist’
“Would it be too bold to imagine ...
that all warm-blooded animals
have arisen from one-living
filament?"
Died April 18, 1802
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
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(1744-1829) coined the term
“biology” and taught that
evolution functions by
inheritance of acquired
characteristics
1809 - Philosophie Zoologique
presented a comprehensive
theory of transformism.
Charles Lyell
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1830 First volume of Charles Lyell's
Principles of Geology interprets earth
history as a process of gradual
change.
Lyell felt that geological processes
are so uniform that their rates and
effects must balance out through
time.
Processes that build mountains must
eventually be balanced by the
erosion of those mountains.
Charles Darwin
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Born February 12, 1809
Voyage on the HMS Beagle
(Dec., 1831 - Oct., 1836)
Galapagos Islands – Darwin’s
finches
1859 - “On the Origin of
Species”
Theory of Natural Selection
Died April 19, 1882
Alfred R. Wallace
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1858 Alfred R. Wallace
proposed, in a letter to
Charles Darwin, a theory of
evolution by means of natural
selection based on his work in
Indonesia.
The two agreed to present
their papers on the same
occasion to the Linnean
Society.
The Tipping Point
1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of
Species; or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in
the Struggle for Life.
Darwin’s Finches
Thomas Henry Huxley
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1863 Thomas Henry Huxley's
Man's Place in Nature stressed
the similarities between
humans and apes.
1863 Lyell's Antiquity of Man
popularized the belief that the
human race is much older than
allowed by the biblical time
scale.
Spontaneous Generation
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In the early 1600’s and before, it
was believed that living organisms
arose from the environment like
dust and dirt
There were many attempts to
disprove this theory, a feat
successfully achieved by Louis
Pasteur in 1864
Pasteur’s Experiment
Gregor Mendel
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Born July 22, 1822
1865- Suggests that traits are passed
on through generations
Published the results of his
investigations of the inheritance of
"factors" in pea plants.
Died January 6, 1884
Around the same time, scientists start
to accept Darwin’s theory of evolution
Antoine Henri Becquerel
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Physicist credited with the
discovery of radioactivity
1896 – Uses radioactive
dating to show that the
Earth is ~ 4.3 billion years
old
G. H. Hardy and W. Weinberg
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1908 - recognized that evolutionary change is
not automatic, that it occurs only when
something disturbs the genetic equilibrium.
Alfred Wegener
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1912 - a geophysicist
proposed the theory of continental
drift and an earlier supercontinent
called Pangaea, which
split to form the
current continents.
William Jennings Bryan
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Born March 19, 1860
1920 – American politician launches
anti-evolution campaign
‘The Menace of Darwinism’ speech
1923 - Oklahoma & Florida pass
laws banning teaching evolution
Died July 26, 1925
The Scopes Monkey Trial
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After the Tennessee legislature passed its anti-evolution law in
March 1925, the American Civil Liberties Union advertised for a
test subject, and a Dayton teacher named John Scopes
volunteered to be the defendant.
Scopes was a physics teacher who had occasionally taught
biology as a substitute; he could not specifically remember
mentioning evolution to his students, but he thought he probably
had at some point.
A fellow opponent of the law from Dayton swore out the
complaint against him.
Scopes
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The legal issue was somewhat beside the
point -- whether Scopes broke the antievolution law. The judge easily found that he
did, and fined him $100.
The Scopes trial did not go beyond Tennessee
but the evolution versus creation, science
versus religion debate raged on.
Proof of Evolution’s Mechanism
1953
J. D. Watson and
F. H. C. Crick
published the
structure for DNA
in Nature.
Genesis Flood
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Published in 1961
Beginning of “young earth
creation”
Suggests that the Earth is
not millions of years old, as
evolutionists (and even
most anti-evolutionists)
believe
Supreme Court
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1968 Susan Epperson vs. Arkansas
Challenges Arkansas law banning
teaching
of evolution in schools
Supreme Court rules law unconstitutional, essentially
striking down all laws banning the teaching of evolution
The court ruled that evolution can be taught in public
schools because it is a science, but not creationism,
because it constitutes religion
Donald Johansson
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1974 - Discovered fossilized
human relative 4 million years
old
Named it Lucy – Australopithecus
afarensis
Ape sized brain, but walked
upright
1990's The human genome project
was begun.
Pope John Paul II
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Born May 18, 1920
Real name: Karol Józef Wojtyła
1996 - Endorses evolution,
building on Pope Pius XII
Accepts that scientific proof for
evolution can not be ignored
Different fields, many researchers
Died April 2, 2005
“The convergence, neither
sought nor fabricated, of
the results of work that
was conducted
independently is in itself
a significant argument in
favor of this theory."
USA Evolution Challenges
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1999 – Columbine School shootings
prompt politicians to blame lack of
morals in youth on teaching of
evolution
2000 – Students at Jefferson High in
Lafayette, Ind. Petition to have
creation taught in biology classes
What do we know so far?
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The Wall of Time
The Big Bang Theory video clip
What You Oughta Know
Thinking Critically
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Resource:
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Biologists