BIOL1003 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: James Hutton, Natural Selection 2, James Ussher
BIOL1003: Module 1 Evolution
Lecture 4 – Meaning of evolution, geology
• What Darwin saw - Charles Darwin and the origin of the evolutionary theory
• Revolution: dig dramatic change
• Evolution: small gradual changes
• The scientific revolution: in the 1600 and 1700
• Evolution was a scientific revolution
Meanings of evolution in biology
1. Change in anything, particularly gradual/stepwise
2. Change in gene frequencies
o Change in gene frequencies can happen within populations, not all of evolution
3. Adaptation/improvement
o Sometimes get more complex, sometimes get simpler
o Not just progress
4. Speciation
5. Decent with modification (Darwin's definition)
o Best short definition
o Common ancestry
Charles Darwin
1. Discovered natural selection
2. Established common ancestry (decent with modification)
• Second voyage (5 year voyage) of the Beagle
• Galapagos islands - very important
Misconception:
• Darwin visited the Galapagos islands and discovered evolution or natural selection
Reality
Darwin did geology
Charles Lyell: Principles of geology
"gradualism" - Darwin learnt a lot form this book which helped him to discover the theory of
evolution by natural selection
Points of Darwin
• Origins and distribution of Coral reefs (wrote a book)
• Early evolutionary idea - but in geology
Biology before Darwin
• A key idea was "special creation"
• This idea was basically biblical creation idea, but had been modified through several stages
1. 1600: literal interpretation of Genesis
• Archbishop James Ussher (worked out generations)
2. 1700: development of geology, discovery of deep time
• James Hutton: engineer - The founder of modern geology and explored the
geology of Scotland
• Hutton's Unconformity - take a long time to make the layers
• Periods of unknown length
• "no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end"
• Linnaeus
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