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John M. Lynch


Barrett Honors College &
  School of Life Sciences
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
A “total suspension of
judgement is here our
only reasonable
resource.”

    Dialogues Concerning
   Natural Religion (1779)
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
1858 was not “marked by
 any of those striking
 discoveries which at once
 revolutionize, so to
 speak, the department of
 science on which they
 bear.”

           Presidential Address,
               Linnaean Society
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
quot;When the ideas advanced
by me in this volume, or
when analogous views on
the origin of species are
generally admitted, we can
dimly foresee that there
will be a considerable
revolution in natural
historyquot;
“You are the greatest
Revolutionist in natural
history this century, if
not of all centuries.”

 Letter to CD, 21st Nov „59
The detection of intelligent
design “is so unambiguous
and so significant that it must
be ranked as one of the
greatest achievements in the
history of science. The
discovery rivals those of
Newton & Einstein, Lavoisier &
Schrödinger, Pasteur &
Darwin.”


     Darwin‟s Black Box, 1996, p. 233.
   What was before?

   What happened?

   What was after?

   How quickly did the
    change happen?

   Where was there a
    revolution?
Implications

Mechanism

 Pathway

   Fact
“[C]hange in the properties of populations of organisms or
groups of such populations, over the course of generations …
Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces
everything from slight changes in the proportions of different
forms of a gene within a population, such as the alleles that
determine the different human blood types, to the alterations
that led from the earliest organisms to
dinosaurs, bees, snapdragons, and humans.”


                            Douglas J. Futuyma (1998) Evolutionary Biology 3rd ed., p.4
ORGANIC LIFE beneath the shoreless waves
Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves;
First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass,
Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass;
These, as successive generations bloom,
New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume;
Whence countless groups of vegetation spring,
And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing
Limited
              Variation


Speciation
due to
Environment
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
   Ifthere are variations, and

   If these are inherited, and

   If one variant is more suited to
    some task that the others, and

   Ifthat task directly affects
    survival and therefore
    reproduction,

   Thenselection will result in
    evolutionary change over time

   If the selective pressure is
    applied over time.
   Two essays: On Upon Single Vision with Two
    Eyes; The Other on Dew…and An Account of a
    Female of the White Race…Part of Whose Skin
    Resembles That of a Negro…By the Late W.C.
    Wells…with a Memoir of His Life, Written by
    Himself.

   Darwin wrote “In this paper he [Wells] distinctly
    recognizes the principle of natural selection, and
    this is the first recognition which has been
    indicated…” (4th edition, 1866)
   Appendix to Naval
    Timber and
    Arboriculture

   Claims priority in
    1860 letter to
    Gardeners Chronicle

   Darwin
    acknowledges this.
   “An Attempt to Classify the
    „Varieties‟ of Animals, with
    Observations on the Marked
    Seasonal and Other Changes
    Which Naturally Take Place in
    Various British Species, and
    Which Do Not Constitute
    Varieties“ Magazine of
    Natural History

   Natural selection working to
    preserve type and essence,
    i.e. selection as a negative
    force.
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
   Not in originating
    natural selection

   But in seeing what
    natural selection was
    potentially capable of
    doing
Instinct




Classification                  Fossil Record




                  Natural
                 Selection



Embryology                      Morphology




                 Geographic
                 Distribution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
1837   Notebooks on Transmutation

1842   Pencil Sketch
                               Private
1844   Essay

1856   Natural Selection
1858   Linnean Society paper
                               Public
1859   Origin of Species
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
1859Origin of Species

1870‟s    Rise of Neo-Lamarckianism

1899Bumpus‟ evidence for nat. seln.

1900Re-discovery of Mendel

1930‟s    “The Modern Synthesis”

1953Crick & Watson‟s Nature paper
    The “Genetic Revolution”
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
“Descent with
 modification through
 natural selection”

  Transmutation of Species
  „Struggle‟ with biosphere
   & other organisms
  A theory of heredity

  Natural Selection
  Sexual Selection
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
We have a professional
discipline and an
entirely convincing,
naturalistic explanation
of the design-like
appearance of the
natural world.
Natural
                           Selection

              Economy of
                                       Tree Thinking
                Nature




 Gradual                                               Genealogical
 Change                                                Classification




                           Darwin


                                                       Biogeographic
Coevolution
                                                        Distribution




                Sexual                   Selective
               Selection                Extinction


                           Deep Time
Tree Thinking
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
7mya           6mya                   5mya              4mya               3mya                  2mya                    1mya         Now




                                                               Kenyanthropus
                                                                  platyops                                        Homo erectus

                                                                                                                Homo ergaster


                                                                            A. garhi                         Homo                 “Archaic”
                                                                                                           rudolfensis              Homo
                                                                                                                                   sapiens
                       Ardipithecus      Ardipithecus          Australopithecus
                        kadabba            ramidus                afarensis
  Sahelanthropus
    tchadensis                                                                                   Homo
                                                                                                 habilis
                                                                                                                                   Modern
                                                                                                                                   Humans
                                                Australopithecus
                                                  anamensis
                                                                              Australopithecus
                     Orrorin                                                     africanus
                   tugenesis

                                                                                                        Paranthropus
                                                                                                          robustus
                                                                                                                                 Neandertals

                                                                          Paranthropus
                                                                           aethiopicus
                                                                                                  Paranthropus
                                                                                                     boisei
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
“Darwin had the luck to
please everybody with
an axe to grind.”

    Back to Methuselah 1921
“The growth of a large
business is merely the
survival of the fittest …
This is not an evil
tendency in business. It
is merely the working
out of a law of nature
and a law of God.”

  John D. Rockefeller, jr.
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
Was There A Darwinian Revolution
2008 - 2009
“Evolution had become respectable.
No revolution took place, no
pyrotechnics, just a quiet change at
the top – a palace coup. Society
would never be the same.”
                          James Moore
“All
changed, chang
ed utterly:

A terrible
beauty is born.”

More Related Content

Was There A Darwinian Revolution

  • 1. John M. Lynch Barrett Honors College & School of Life Sciences
  • 21. A “total suspension of judgement is here our only reasonable resource.” Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (1779)
  • 24. 1858 was not “marked by any of those striking discoveries which at once revolutionize, so to speak, the department of science on which they bear.” Presidential Address, Linnaean Society
  • 26. quot;When the ideas advanced by me in this volume, or when analogous views on the origin of species are generally admitted, we can dimly foresee that there will be a considerable revolution in natural historyquot;
  • 27. “You are the greatest Revolutionist in natural history this century, if not of all centuries.” Letter to CD, 21st Nov „59
  • 28. The detection of intelligent design “is so unambiguous and so significant that it must be ranked as one of the greatest achievements in the history of science. The discovery rivals those of Newton & Einstein, Lavoisier & Schrödinger, Pasteur & Darwin.” Darwin‟s Black Box, 1996, p. 233.
  • 29. What was before?  What happened?  What was after?  How quickly did the change happen?  Where was there a revolution?
  • 31. “[C]hange in the properties of populations of organisms or groups of such populations, over the course of generations … Biological evolution may be slight or substantial; it embraces everything from slight changes in the proportions of different forms of a gene within a population, such as the alleles that determine the different human blood types, to the alterations that led from the earliest organisms to dinosaurs, bees, snapdragons, and humans.” Douglas J. Futuyma (1998) Evolutionary Biology 3rd ed., p.4
  • 32. ORGANIC LIFE beneath the shoreless waves Was born and nurs'd in Ocean's pearly caves; First forms minute, unseen by spheric glass, Move on the mud, or pierce the watery mass; These, as successive generations bloom, New powers acquire, and larger limbs assume; Whence countless groups of vegetation spring, And breathing realms of fin, and feet, and wing
  • 33. Limited Variation Speciation due to Environment
  • 38. Ifthere are variations, and  If these are inherited, and  If one variant is more suited to some task that the others, and  Ifthat task directly affects survival and therefore reproduction,  Thenselection will result in evolutionary change over time  If the selective pressure is applied over time.
  • 39. Two essays: On Upon Single Vision with Two Eyes; The Other on Dew…and An Account of a Female of the White Race…Part of Whose Skin Resembles That of a Negro…By the Late W.C. Wells…with a Memoir of His Life, Written by Himself.  Darwin wrote “In this paper he [Wells] distinctly recognizes the principle of natural selection, and this is the first recognition which has been indicated…” (4th edition, 1866)
  • 40. Appendix to Naval Timber and Arboriculture  Claims priority in 1860 letter to Gardeners Chronicle  Darwin acknowledges this.
  • 41. “An Attempt to Classify the „Varieties‟ of Animals, with Observations on the Marked Seasonal and Other Changes Which Naturally Take Place in Various British Species, and Which Do Not Constitute Varieties“ Magazine of Natural History  Natural selection working to preserve type and essence, i.e. selection as a negative force.
  • 43. Not in originating natural selection  But in seeing what natural selection was potentially capable of doing
  • 44. Instinct Classification Fossil Record Natural Selection Embryology Morphology Geographic Distribution
  • 47. 1837 Notebooks on Transmutation 1842 Pencil Sketch Private 1844 Essay 1856 Natural Selection 1858 Linnean Society paper Public 1859 Origin of Species
  • 50. 1859Origin of Species 1870‟s Rise of Neo-Lamarckianism 1899Bumpus‟ evidence for nat. seln. 1900Re-discovery of Mendel 1930‟s “The Modern Synthesis” 1953Crick & Watson‟s Nature paper The “Genetic Revolution”
  • 53. “Descent with modification through natural selection”  Transmutation of Species  „Struggle‟ with biosphere & other organisms  A theory of heredity  Natural Selection  Sexual Selection
  • 56. We have a professional discipline and an entirely convincing, naturalistic explanation of the design-like appearance of the natural world.
  • 57. Natural Selection Economy of Tree Thinking Nature Gradual Genealogical Change Classification Darwin Biogeographic Coevolution Distribution Sexual Selective Selection Extinction Deep Time
  • 61. 7mya 6mya 5mya 4mya 3mya 2mya 1mya Now Kenyanthropus platyops Homo erectus Homo ergaster A. garhi Homo “Archaic” rudolfensis Homo sapiens Ardipithecus Ardipithecus Australopithecus kadabba ramidus afarensis Sahelanthropus tchadensis Homo habilis Modern Humans Australopithecus anamensis Australopithecus Orrorin africanus tugenesis Paranthropus robustus Neandertals Paranthropus aethiopicus Paranthropus boisei
  • 67. “Darwin had the luck to please everybody with an axe to grind.” Back to Methuselah 1921
  • 68. “The growth of a large business is merely the survival of the fittest … This is not an evil tendency in business. It is merely the working out of a law of nature and a law of God.” John D. Rockefeller, jr.
  • 82. “Evolution had become respectable. No revolution took place, no pyrotechnics, just a quiet change at the top – a palace coup. Society would never be the same.” James Moore
  • 83. “All changed, chang ed utterly: A terrible beauty is born.”

Editor's Notes

  1. 1809 – Zoological Philosophy published – first full worked theory of evolution
  2. 12th Century v Blake (18th Cent)
  3. What here is “challengable”?
  4. Common thread of replacing religion in public life with scientific rationalism. Science has somehow “disproved” religion.
  5. Long gestation of 1830’s to 1930’s …