evolutionoary

• The Theories of Evolution and the Evidence Supporting Them

  Development of Evolutionary Thought and Evidence of Evolution
• Development of Evolutionary Thought

  • John Ray
  • Carl Linnaeus
  • Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
  • Erasmus Darwin
  • Georges Cuvier
  • Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
  • James Hutton
  • Charles Lyell
  • Charles Robert Darwin
  • Alfred Russell Wallace
• A Timeline of Evolutionary Thought

  1. John Ray (1627–1705)

  2. Carl Linnaeus, also called as Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1798)

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

  4. Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)

  5. Georges Cuvier (1769-1832)

  6. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

  7. James Hutton (1726-1797)

  8. Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

  9. Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882)

  10. Alfred Russell Wallace (1823-1913)
• Charles Darwin


  • Born in England on February 12, 1809
  • In 1831, he went aboard the H.M.S. Beagle in its voyage around the world
• Darwin noted that the characteristics of certain animals, such as the shape of tortoise shells or the beaks of beards, vary from one island to another
• Darwin found out that the species present in one location were different from the species found in other locations, and what seemed like animals that look alike may actually belong to several different species (e.g., mockingbird)
• Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species


  • Proposed the now famous theory of evolution by natural selection
  • Presented pieces of evidence demonstrating this process
• Thomas Malthus


  An English economist
• Darwin realized that high birth rates and a shortage of life's basic needs would eventually force organisms into competition for resources
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck


  • Proposed that all species descended from other species
  • Published his theory of how organisms changed over time in 1809
• Theory of Use and Disuse


  1. Theory of Use: organisms could alter the size, shape, or structure of particular body parts or organs by continuously using them in new ways

  2. Theory of Disuse: if an animal chooses not to use its body part, that body part or organ decrease in size for several generations until it finally disappears
• Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics


  Organisms inherited their traits from their parents, and that they may also pass them on the next generation of offspring
• Evidence of Evolution


  • Biogeography
  • Fossil Record
  • Homology
  • Embryology
  • DNA/Protein Sequences
• Biogeography


  The study of the distribution of plants and animals on Earth
• As observed by Charles Darwin in the Galapagos Islands, there were finches with different shapes of beaks depending on their geographical locations
• Fossil


  Contains preserved remains or evidence of ancient organisms
• Fossils provide strong evidence of the history of life on Earth and show how organisms have changed over time
• Homologous structures are structures that are similar on different species of common ancestry
• Different organisms have similar structures during their early embryological development, suggesting common ancestry
• Similarities in DNA sequences among organisms indicate their close relation with one another, e.g. humans and chimpanzees, dogs and mice