Evolution and principles of systematics

ZOOL-3116
History of Evolutionary Thought
Dr. Muhammad Mudassar Shahzad

Dr. Muhammad Mudassar Shahzad

(DSNT Zoology)
 AL-BIRUNI 973 - 1048

• Gradual changes
• But change is dangerous…
 Erasmus Darwin

Darwins Grandfather Erasmus

Wrote about evolution – but in poetry – in poems the dangerous ideas
were less obvious
Coat of arms ‘ from shells comes everything’ a statement of his belief in
Evolution
Was made to remove it from his coach by the Bishop of Lichfield – he
understood the danger of these ideas even though they were in Latin
What was the view of the world and nature before Darwin?

1. Static Universe
The universe didn’t change through time

Problem - Fossil Evidence

What was the view of the world and nature before Darwin?

1. Static Universe
2. Earth Centred Universe

Galileo - showed that this was wrong

What was the view of the world and nature before Darwin?

1. Static Universe
2. Earth Centred Universe
3. Great Chain of Being

Problem - how do you incorporate new species?

What was the view of the world and nature before Darwin?

1. Static Universe
2. Earth Centred Universe
3. Great Chain of Being
4. Argument from Design
Each species was designed for a specific purpose

Problem:
How did this ‘traditional’ view (or Natural Theology)
apply to Biology?
1. Argument from Design
The design of all organisms showed that
there was an intelligent and benevolent Creator

BUT….
How do disease
organisms fit into
this scheme ?

Ebola
How did this ‘traditional’ view (or Natural Theology)
apply to Biology?
1. Argument from Design
2. Relationship between Species
(Great Chain of Being)

BUT ..
vulnerable to
extinction
How did this ‘traditional’ view (or Natural Theology)
apply to Biology?
1. Argument from Design
2. Relationship between Species
3. Fixed Species and Relationships

How do you incorporate new species?

Pre-Darwinian Ideas of Organic Change

1. Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

Species - a distinct group maintained by

reproduction

Local
Conditions

Different
species
Ancestor

Time
Pre-Darwinian Ideas of Organic Change

1. Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

2. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

Lamarck’s ideas:
1. Spontaneous generation
 Pre-Darwinian Ideas of Organic Change

1. Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

2. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

Lamarck’s ideas:
1. Spontaneous generation
2. Ascent up the scale of nature

Complexity of the Different species

organism

Time
Pre-Darwinian Ideas of Organic Change

1. Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707-1788)

2. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

Lamarck’s ideas:
1. Spontaneous generation
2. Ascent up the scale of nature
3. Acquired characteristics
Jean Baptiste LAMARCK
1744 – 1829

Lamarck

• Lamarck rejected fixity

• He proposed a theory of evolution which is attractive but it
was eventually rejected because of the way inheritance works
 Adaptation and specialisation
• Lamarck noticed that organisms adapted to a particular
niche had well developed specialised organs
• For example a carnivore will have long canine teeth to
grip its prey
vestigial organs
• Small non-functional organs (vestigial organs)
• e.g. the appendix in humans, the internal hind limbs of
whales and the internal legs of some species of snakes
• Comparative anatomy showed that these organs
resembled those which were much more developed, with
particular functions, in other species
The Law of Use and Disuse
• He proposed that if an organ is used a lot it will
develop and strengthen
• If it is not used it will atrophy
• He called this the law of use and disuse
The Inheritance of Acquired
Characteristics
• if an organism developed a characteristic feature through
adapting to a new way of life during its lifetime, it would
pass this on to its offspring
• The classic example given is that of the giraffe’s neck
• As the giraffe’s ancestors searched for a richer food supply
they stretched to reach higher branches in trees
• Thus their stretched bodies were passed onto their offspring
 Lamarck v Darwin
• Lamarck’s theory required adaptation to create new variations
• This was followed by the inheritance of these characteristics
• Darwin’s theory requires random hereditary variation first,
followed by selection of the variations
• The argument was over when Mendel’s laws of genetics were
rediscovered at the end of the 19th century
• Variations are due to hereditary traits passing from one
generation to the next in predictable frequencies
 Disproving Lamarck
• Characteristics acquired during the lifetime of a parent are not
passed onto the offspring
• Example: An athlete who develops a large muscle mass
through training does not have children who already possess
this large muscle mass
• Ernst Haeckel
In an attempt to disprove Lamarckism he is said to have cut off
the tails of mice for several generations
• The babies born from this line of tailless mice still grew tails as
long as their ancestors
• This was not exactly a fair test as the mice had not stopped
using their tails in an attempt to adapt to their environment
• They still found their tails useful
 Lamarckism in evolution theory today
• Behaviour can be different
• Some behaviour patterns are innate and will also evolve in by
natural selection
• learned behaviour patterns can be changed within a
generation
• Members of a social group who have acquired the behaviour in
their lifetimes will pass these learned skills onto others
including their children
• This pattern of evolution resembles the Lamarckian pattern
• The evolution of learnt behaviour is much faster than genetic
evolution and it plays an important role in human cultural
evolution
Originators of Modern Theories of Natural Selection

Charles Darwin Alfred Russell Wallace

 Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
• Beagle voyage, 1831-36
• South America, Tierra del Fuego, Galapagos
• In 1831 Darwin sets sail on the HMS Beagle.
• In 1844 he writes his theory on the origin of species.
• In 1858, Darwin and Wallace publish their theories on
evolution.

• Evolution means change over time.

 History of Darwin’s Studies
• Darwin went on an around-the-world trip on the HMS
Beagle and traveled to the Galapagos Islands.
• He particularly liked and observed the finches. He also
observed the tortoises on different islands.
• He observed each different group had its own niche.
• He studied 13 different species and saw how they
adapted to their environment.
1859 On the Origin of Species by
Means of Natural Selection
Two theories presented in the book
1. Evolution = change in species over time;
descent with modification; new species derived
from other species; common ancestry.
2. Natural selection = main mechanism by which
evolution occurs.
 Darwin’s evidence for evolution (species
derived from common ancestry)

• Geographical distribution & unique adaptations (13 similar

species of Galapagos finches)
• Fossils & long geological history.
• Vestigial organs.
• Taxonomic relations.
 Key components of natural selection
• Variation
• Competition
• Fitness
• Adaptation

Variation
• Individual members of a species have heritable differences.
• Darwin hypothesized that these variations are random
(later term = gene mutations).
Competition: The struggle
for existence
• Resources are fixed (food, shelter).
• Many more individuals are produced each
generation than can survive and reproduce.
• Individuals must compete for limited resources.
• Darwin got this idea from reading Thomas Malthus
(1798), Principle of Population.
Grim doctrine of Rev. Malthus: pressure
of overpopulation. WHY?
Fitness of individuals
• Some individuals of a species have traits (physical
or behavioral) that make them better at surviving
and reproducing.
• Results in differential reproduction, or “survival of
the fittest.” The unfit perish or fail to procreate.
• Fitness is linked to particular environment.
Adaptation of the population
• Increased percentage of individuals in succeeding
generations have the beneficial traits.
• Results over time in a new population.
• Darwin called this “divergence,” we say speciation.
Darwin’s Finches - Geospiza

Galapagos tortoise - Geochelone

 Contributing Elements to Darwin’s theory

1. Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875)

Gradualism (Uniformitarianism)

All change through time can be explained

by processes at work today

No need to invoke catastrophic events

 Contributing Elements to Darwin’s theory

1. Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875)

2. Thomas Malthus (1766 - 1834)

Populations of organism will grow

faster than their food supply

Population

Number
Food supply

Time
Contributing Elements to Darwin’s theory

1. Charles Lyell (1797 - 1875)

2. Thomas Malthus (1766 - 1834)
3. Plant and Animal Breeders

-showed that the form of a

species could be changed
over time
 Logic of Darwin’s
Theory of Natural Selection
(or Descent with Modification)
Observation Deduction
1. All organic populations can
exponentially. 1. There is some kind of
struggle for existence.
2. In spite of Obs. 1, they don’t.

3. All members of a species are

not the same.
2. Some members of a species
4. Differences in individuals are
are better equipped to survive
passed to their offspring.
and reproduce than others.

This differential reproduction/survival is

natural selection
Organising diversity:
Taxonomy and trees
So…..
What’s the reason some things are more similar than others?
Descent with modification from a common ancestor

What’s the mechanism?

Natural selection
 Human Chimp

H. erectus

H. habilis

A. afarensis

Monkey ancestor
Australopithecus afarensis
Lucy, 3 mya
 Two legs good,
four legs bad?

So we can easily study how we look compared to our closet living

relative, cousin chimps but what did the common ancestor look like
and what do our human ancestors look like?

A. afarensis, nicknamed Lucy. Lucy lived partly in the trees like the
other apes and partly on the ground, walking around upright as we
do.
Gibbons swings by its arms and human run on 2 legs.
So easy to understand how living animals move because we can
watch them, but it is much harder to interpret how fossilsed animals
move, when we only have their bones to work out how they lived.
One technique is to look at the length of the humerus to the femur,
because the limb that is bigger is likely to be the one that does the
most work
When the animal is moving round.

We are going to test this theory by measuring some fossils that we

have here, and we need 2 volunteers to help Julia measure the fossil
bones (get volunteers)
and to get the human data the rest of us will measure ourselves.