Brief History Of Evolutionary Theory Before Darwin
Brief History of Evolutionary Theory BeforeDarwinRobert J. RichardsCourse: Darwin’s Origin of Species and Descent of Man
Theories of Species Change Priorto Darwin Entangled with:1. Theories of geological change.2. Theories of heredity.3. And theories of ontogenesis, that is,of individual development–embryology.
Notions of Species in the Classical Period ofGreecePlato: the essence or form of an organismis eternal and unchanging; embodimentonly the appearance of that form.Aristotle: the essence or form of anorganism is incorporated in the physicalbody; the only kind of eternity enjoyed isthrough continued reproduction.
Theories of Species Change in the Early ModernPeriodDescartes: gradual evolution of physical systemaccording to fix laws (Discourse on Method,1628).Buffon (1707‐88) and Linnaeus (1707‐78): Godcreated a limited number of species, but throughhybridization and impact of environment, newspecies appear.Kant: evolutionary development from earthpossible only if earth already construed aspurposive; species change possible but noevidence (Critique of Judgment, 1790).
Adam’s Mammoth, found in Siberia in 18th century; St.Petersburg Natural History Museum
Cuvier’s illustration of the Siberian mammoth; heidentified it as an extinct species of elephant(1796).
Cuvier’s illustration of the “Ohio Animal,” which henamed “mastodon.”
Megatherium (i.e., “large animal”), discovered inSouth America, described by Cuvier as an extinctcreature similar to the modern sloth. Remainsalso found by Darwin during his work inArgentina.
Cuvier’s drawing of the fossil remains of amammal he called Anoplotherium commune.
Illustrations of Ichthyosaurus (fish‐like reptile) andPlesiosaurus (almost reptile), from Daniel Coynbeare (1787‐1857) paper for the Transactions of the Geological Society ofLondon (1824).
Thomas Henry De La Beche (1796‐1855), sketch of life inancient Dorset, 1830.
De La Beche’s lampoon of Lyell (1830). Professor Ichthyosaurus is lecturing:“You will at once perceive,” continued Professor Ichthyosaurus, “that theskull before us belonged to some of the lower order of animals: the teethare very insignificant; the power of the jaws trifling; and altogether it seemswonderful how the creature could have procured food.”
Antoni van Leeuwenhoek’s (1632‐1723) observation ofsmall animals, animaculae, in the sperm of differentanimals; from Philosophical Transactions of the RoyalSociety (1679).
Illustration little man in male sperm by NicolasHartsoeker ( 1656‐1725), in his Éssai de dioptrique, 1694.
Charles Bonnet (1720‐1793), illustration of the GreatChain of Being.
Erasmus Darwin (1732‐1802)
Jean‐Baptiste de Lamarck (1744‐1829)
Rununculus aquatis: a) grown in water, with leaves below underwater andleaves above in air; b) grown in the ground. From C. D. Cook, “On theDetermination of Leaf Form in Ranunculus Aquatilis, New Phytologist 68(1969): 469‐80.
Flounder, a flatfish with eyes on the same side of body;when a fry, eyes are on either side and the fish swimsvertically.
Brief History of Evolutionary Theory Before Darwin . Robert J. Richards . Course: Darwin’s Origin of Species and Descent of Man . 1. Theories of geological change. 2. Theories of heredity. 3. And theories of ontogenesis, that is,
evolutionary biology. From this point of view, some authors have tried to extend the Darwinian theory universally beyond the domain of evolutionary biology (Cf. Dawkins, 1983), using the three principles of evolutionary theory (inheritance or retention, variation, and adaptation) as a heuristic for evolutionary economic theorizing (Campbell, 1965).
development of a new evolutionary theory, namely media naturalness theory (Kock 2004, 2005). This new theory was developed to fill a theoretical gap in connection with a non-evolutionary theory known as media richness theory (Daft and Lengel 1986; Daft et al. 1987). While evolutionary theories can bridge gaps left by non-evolutionary theories .
Evolutionary Theory of Aging vs. Life History Theory The evolutionary theory of aging may be considered as part of a more general life history theory[20,21], which tries to explain how evolution designs organisms to achieve reproductive success (i.e., avoid extinction). Life history theory is based on mathematical methods of
NATURE OF HUMAN INTELLIGENCE Leda Cosmides* and John Tooby* EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHOLOGY The goal of research in evolutionary psychology is to discover and understand the de- sign of the human mind. Evolutionary psychology is an approach to psychology, in which knowledge and principles from evolutionary biology and human evolutionary
data into studies of eco-evolutionary dynamics can provide a better mechanistic understanding of the causes of phenotypic change, help elucidate the mechanisms driving eco-evolutionary dynamics and lead to more accurate evolutionary predictions of eco-evolutionary dynamics in nature (Fig. 2). What genomic data can reveal about
1.1.3 Evolutionary Design by Computers So it is clear that evolutionary design in nature is capable of generating astonishingly in-novative designs. This book demonstrates how evolutionary design by computers is also cap-able of such innovation. To achieve this, the highest achievers in evolutionary design have
Evolutionary game optimization method based on economic game theory maps search space of optimization problem into the combinational space of game strategies and objective function into utility function. 1 In an evolutionary game, through dynamic evolutionary process of fitted individual can optimization problem be solved, each individual
classroom is small-group work. Indeed, from early efforts at group-based, Davidson, N., Major, C. H., & Michaelsen, L. K. (2014). Small-group learning in higher education—cooperative, collaborative, problem-based, and team-based learning: An introduction by the guest editors. Journal on Excellence in College Teaching, 25(3&4), 1-6. 2 Journal on Excellence in College Teaching active learning .
