Chapter 20

Development of Evolutionary
Thought

Russell, Biology: The Dynamic Science, 5th edition. © 2021 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or
duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
H.M.S. Beagle

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Why It Matters…
• In 1858 Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace
each presented papers to the Linnaean Society of
London
• In 1859 Darwin published his book, On the Origin
of Species by Means of Natural Selection.
• Darwin’s concept of evolution forms the unifying
paradigm within which all biological research is
undertaken

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Darwin and Wallace

Charles Darwin Alfred Russel Wallace

Historic England/Bridgeman Images

Historic England/Bridgeman Images

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Biological Evolution
• Biological evolution occurs in populations when
specific processes cause the genomes of
organisms to differ from those of their ancestors
• By studying the products of evolution, biologists
learn about the processes that cause evolutionary
change

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20.1 Recognition of Evolutionary Change
• Natural history
• Branch of biology that examines the form and
variety of organisms in their natural environments
• Aristotle (384–322 B.C.) created a ladder-like
classification of nature (Scala Naturae)
• Natural theology
• By the fourteenth century, Europeans had merged
Aristotle’s classification system with biblical
creation

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Integration of Ideas
• Beginning in the 14th century, scientists proposed
mechanistic theories to explain physical events:
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543); Galileo Galilei
(1564–1642), René Descartes (1596–1650), Isaac
Newton (1643–1727)
• Sir Francis Bacon (1561–1626) established the
importance of observation, experimentation, and
inductive reasoning
• Carolus Linnaeus (1707–1778) developed the
branch of biology that classifies organisms
(taxonomy)

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Questions About Biogeography
• Three new disciplines promoted a growing
awareness of change: biogeography, comparative
morphology, and geology
• Biogeography
• Studies of the world distribution of plants and
animals

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Similar Species, Different Regions

African ostrich South American rhea Australian emu

(Struthio camelus) (Rhea americana) (Dromaius novaehollandiae)

scooperdigital/iStockphoto.com
© vblinov/Shutterstock.com

© PRILL/Shutterstock.com

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Questions About Comparative Morphology
• When biologists began to compare the
morphology (anatomical structure) of organisms,
they discovered interesting similarities and
differences
• Buffon proposed vestigial structures

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Homologous Structures

Humerus

Ulna

Radius

Carpals

5
1 1
4
Digits
5
2 5 2
3
4
2
3 4
3
Foreleg of Flipper of dolphin Wing of bat
pig

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Questions About Fossils
• By the mid-18th century, geologists observed
different fossils in younger and older layers of
sedimentary rocks
• Georges Cuvier (1769–1832), a founder of
paleobiology, realized that layers of fossils
represented organisms that had lived at
successive times in the past
• Developed the theory of catastrophism

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Lamarck and Biological Evolution
• Jean Baptiste de Lamarck (1744–1829) proposed
a theory of biological evolution based on specific
mechanisms (principle of use and disuse and
inheritance of acquired characteristics)
• Lamarck had four important ideas that were used
by Darwin:
• All species change through time
• New characteristics are passed from one
generation to the next
• Organisms change in response to their
environments
• Specific mechanisms caused evolutionary change
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Lamarck’s Theories
• According to Lamarck,
short-legged ancestors
of herons stretched
their legs to stay dry
while feeding in
shallow water

McPhoto/Blickwinkel/AGE Fotostock
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Lamarck’s Inheritance of
Acquired Characteristics
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Early giraffes probably had short necks

that they stretched to reach food.

Their offspring had longer necks

that they stretched to reach food.

Eventually, the continued stretching 15

of the neck resulted in today’s giraffe.
Recognition That Earth Had Changed over Time
• Gradualism
• James Hutton (1726–1797) proposed that slow,
continuous physical processes, acting over long
periods of time, produced Earth’s geological
features
• Uniformitarianism
• Charles Lyell (1797–1875) proposed that the
geological processes that sculpted Earth’s surface
over long periods of time are exactly the same as
the processes observed today

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20.2 Darwin’s Journeys
• In 1831 Charles Darwin embarked on a voyage
around the world on the naval surveying ship
H.M.S. Beagle
• Darwin’s major observations:
• Fossilized glyptodonts in Argentina had features
similar to those of living armadillos
• Animals in different South American habitats
resembled each other but differed from species
that occupied similar habitats in Europe.
• Galápagos Islands’ species.

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Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle

Equator

Galápagos
Islands

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 Ancestors and Descendants

Charles R. Knight painting (negative CK21T), Field

Museum of Natural History, Chicago
Steve Bower/Shutterstock.com
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
• Darwin compared South American animals to those
with which he was familiar. (U.K. and European)
 Instead of rabbits, he found the Patagonian hare in the
grasslands of South America. The Patagonian hare has long
legs and ears but the face of a guinea pig.
• Did the Patagonian hare resemble a rabbit because the
two types of animals were adapted to the same type of
environment? Both animals ate grass, hid in bushes,
and moved rapidly using long hind legs. Did the
Patagonian hare have the face of a guinea pig because
of common descent with guinea pigs?

21
The European Hare and the
Patagonian Cavy
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

Lepus europaeus

Dolichotis patagonum

(European hare): © WILDLIFE/Peter Arnold, Inc.; (Patagonian hare): © Juan & Carmecita
Munoz/Photo Researchers, Inc.

22
South American Nutria

South American nutria (Myocastor coypus) European beaver (Castor fiber)

© Eugene Gordin/Shutterstock.com

Krys Bailey/Alamy
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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
• Galapagos Islands
 Tortoises
• Darwin observed that tortoise neck length varied
from island to island
• Proposed that speciation on islands correlated with
a difference in vegetation
 Finches
• Darwin observed many different species of
finches on various islands.
• Significant variety in beaks
• Speculated that they could have descended from a
type of mainland finches

24
 Galápagos Tortoises

Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

a. b.

a: © Kevin Schafer/Corbis; b: © Michael Dick/Animals Animals/Earth Scenes

25
Galápagos Islands
A. The Galápagos B. Galápagos tortoise (Geochelone elephantopus) C. Marine iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus)

Darwin

© rebvt/Shutterstock.com

Onfoku/iStockphoto.com
Wolf

Pinta

Marchena Genovesa

Santiago Equator
Bartolomé
Seymour
Rábid Baltr
Fernandina a Pinzón a
Santa
Cruz
Santa
Tortuga Fe San
Isabela Cristóbal
Española
Floreana

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Darwin’s Reflections
• Darwin noticed great variability in bill shapes
among 13 species of finches from the Galápagos
Islands
• Focused on two questions:
• Why were the finches on a particular island
slightly different from those on nearby islands?
• How did these different species arise?

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Finches of the Galápagos Islands

A. Warbler finch B. Common cactus finch C. Large ground finch D. Woodpecker finch
(Certhidea olivacea) (Geospiza scandens) (Geospiza magnirostris) (Camarhynchus pallidus)

©Kjersti Joergensen/Shutterstock.com
Ralph Lee Hopkins/Getty Images

Alan Root/Bruce Coleman Ltd.

Mark Moffett/Minden Pictures
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Selective Breeding and the Struggle for
Existence
• Darwin knew that selective breeding of plants or
animals enhanced desired characteristics in
future generations – a process he called artificial
selection
• Read Thomas Malthus’ Essay on the Principles of
Population.
• Realized that species typically produce many more
offspring than are needed.

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 Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
• Selection at work
• Artificial selection
 A breeder chooses which traits to perpetuate and selects the
plants and animals that will reproduce – selective breeding.
• All dogs are descended from the gray wolf.
 Began to be domesticated about 14,000 years ago.
 The process of diversification led to extreme phenotypic
differences
• The wolves under domestication were separated from other wolves.
• Each human tribe selected for whatever traits appealed to them.

30
Artificial Selection of Animals
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Boston terrier
Irish
wolfhound

Wolf
Left: © Gary Milburn/Tom Stack & Assoc.; Top right: © Robert Dowling/Corbis; Bottom right:© Ralph Reinhold/Index Stock
31
Imagery/Photolibrary RF ;
 Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
• Artificial selection in plants:
 The following vegetables are derived from a
single species, Brassica oleracea (Wild mustard):
• Chinese cabbage,
• Brussel sprouts, and
• Kohlrabi.
 Darwin described artificial selection as a model
by which to understand natural selection –
selection of more preferred traits through artificial
selection.

32
Artificial Selection of Plants
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

Chinese cabbage Brussels sprouts Kohlrabi

Wild mustard
(Cabbage, Brussel sprouts, kohlrabi): Courtesy W. Atlee Burpee Company; (Mustard): © Jack
Wilburn/Animals Animals/Earth Scenes;

33
Darwin’s Inferences
• Observation:
• Individuals within populations vary in size, form,
color, behavior, and other characteristics
• Many of these variations are hereditary
• Inference:
• If certain hereditary traits enabled some individuals
to survive and reproduce more than others, then
those traits would become more common in the
next generation
• Darwin called this process natural selection

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Darwin’s Inferences (cont'd.)
• Natural selection favors adaptive traits.
• By favoring individuals that are well adapted to the
environments in which they live, natural selection
causes species to change through time
• Darwin realized that natural selection could cause
populations to become more different over time
(evolutionary divergence)

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Darwin’s Observations and Inferences

Observations Hypotheses Prediction

Most organisms produce more than one or two

offspring.

Individuals within a population

Populations do not increase in size indefinitely. compete for limited resources.

Food and other resources are limited for most A population’s characteristics will change over
populations. the generations as advantageous, heritable
characteristics become more common.
Individuals within populations exhibit variability Hereditary characteristics
may allow some individuals
in many characteristics.
to survive longer and
reproduce more than others.
Many variations appear to be inherited by
subsequent generations.

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Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
• Darwin argued that all organisms that ever lived
arose through descent with modification, the
evolutionary alteration and diversification of
ancestral species

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 The Tree of Life

Reproduced by kind permission of the Syndics of Cambridge University Library.

MS.DAR.121:p.36.
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Four Characteristics of Darwin’s Theory
• The origins of biological diversity can be explained
by purely physical processes
• Evolutionary change occurs in groups of
organisms, rather than in individuals
• Evolution is a multistage process occurring over
generations
• Evolution occurs because some organisms
function better than others in a particular
environment

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20.3 Evolutionary Biology Since Darwin
• Genetic variation is the basis of evolution – the
study of population genetics
• A unified theory of evolution (modern synthesis)
integrates data from biogeography, comparative
morphology, comparative embryology,
paleontology, and taxonomy
• Modern synthesis focuses on the gradual
processes of evolutionary change within
populations

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Two Levels of Evolutionary Change
• Microevolution
• Describes small-scale genetic changes in
populations
• Macroevolution
• Describes larger-scale evolutionary changes in
species and more inclusive groups

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Evidence of Evolutionary Change
• Biologists interpret the products of natural
selection as evolutionary adaptations
• Some adaptive structures have been modified by
evolutionary processes over millions of years (e.g.,
bird wings)
• Sometimes, natural selection operates on a short
time scale (e.g., development of pesticide
resistance in insects)

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The Fossil Record
• Darwin’s theory proposes that all species that
have ever lived are genetically related
• The fossil record documents continuity in
morphological characteristics

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Bird Ancestry

A. Archaeopteryx fossil B. Phylogenetic tree showing the origin of birds

Living birds
60

bobainsworth/iStockphoto.com

Ornithischian dinosaurs

Oviraptorosaurs

Dromeosaurids
Tyrannosauroi
70

80

ds
90

Allosaurids
10

Cretaceous
0

11

Compsognathids
0

12
0

Millions of years ago.

Archaeopteryx
13
0

14
0 Toothless beak,
fused wing digits,
15 short feathered
0 tail

160
Long forelimbs
17
Jurassic

0 Feathers closed and asymmetrical

Coelophysoids
18
0
Feathers closed with barbules
19 and hooks, nest-brooding
0
Tuftedfeathers
200
Hollow cylindrical feathers
210
Eorapt
Triassic

220 Three digitsin

or

hand

230

Hollow bones, furcula (wish bone)

24
0 Four digits in hands

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Historical Biogeography
• Geographical distributions of plants and animals in
relation to their evolutionary history (historical
biogeography) are generally consistent with
Darwin’s theory of evolution
• Species on a continental land mass are clearly
related to one another and are often distinct from
those on other continents

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Comparative Morphology
• Analyses of the structure of living and extinct
organisms (comparative morphology) are based
on comparisons of characteristics that are similar
in two species because of genes they inherited
from a common ancestor (homologous traits)

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 The Evidence of Evolution
• Homologous Structures:
 Anatomically similar because they are inherited from
a common ancestor
 May be functionally similar or not
• Analogous Structures:
 Serve the same function
 Are not constructed similarly
 Do not share a common ancestor
• Vestigial Structures:
 Fully-developed anatomical structures in one group of
organisms
 Reduced or obsolete function in similar groups

50
Molecular Techniques and Embryology
• Early embryos of related species are often similar,
but morphological differences appear as the
embryos grow and develop their adult forms
• Example: How snakes lost their legs

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Genetics of Limb Loss in Snakes

A. Most lizards, like this monitor lizard (Varanus species), B. Most snakes, like this grass snake (Natrix species),lack
have four limbs attached to their backbones. limbs altogether.

George Bernart/NHPA/Photoshot

hotowind/Shutterstock.com
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Significance of Developmental
Similarities
Copyright © The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. Permission required for reproduction or display.

fish

salamander

tortoise

chick
pharyngeal
pouches

human

postanal
tail
53
Wooly Mammoth’s Closest Relatives
• Evolutionary biologists compare genetic
sequences of different species to determine their
evolutionary relationships
• Example: Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus
primigenius)

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Woolly Mammoths

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 Years before present

60,000
0

80,000
70,000
40,000
20,000

50,000
30,000
10,000
Belgium
Belgium
Belgium
Russia
Alaska
Japan
Russia
Switzerland
Italy
Poland
Switzerland
Dog D
Switzerland
Argentina
USA
USA
Dog A
Alaska
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Iran
Saudi Arabia
Oman
Russia
Finland
Russia
Alaska
Germany
Germany
Dog C
Mexico
Mexico
Mongolia
China
China
Croatia
India
Israel
Sweden
Sweden
Russia
Phylogenetic Tree for Wolves and Dogs

Poland
Israel
North America
Russia
Spain
North America
Ukraine
Sweden
Dog B
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Evolution is the Core Theory of Modern Biology
• The theory of evolution is a contentious subject
largely because it suggests that humans and apes
are descended from an apelike common ancestor
• The concept of orthogenesis, which suggests
that evolution produces new species with the goal
of improvement, arose early in the 20th century
• We now know that evolution proceeds as an
ongoing process of dynamic adjustment

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Also see
Table
23.1, P524
in your
textbooks
Continental Drift
Continental Drift