ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES

F1000Prime Reports, 2015

Darwin is the father of evolutionary theory because he identified evolutionary patterns and, with Natural Selection, he ascertained the exquisitely ecological ultimate processes that lead to evolution. The proximate processes of evolution he proposed, however, predated the discovery of genetics, the backbone of modern evolutionary theory. The later discovery of the laws of inheritance by Mendel and the rediscovery of Mendel in the early 20th century led to two reforms of Darwinism: Neo-Darwinism and the Modern Synthesis (and subsequent refinements). If Darwin's evolutionary thought required much refinement, his ecological insight is still very modern. In the first edition of The Origin of Species, Darwin did not use either the word "evolution" or the word "ecology". "Ecology" was not coined until after the publication of the Origin. Evolution, for him, was the origin of varieties, then species, which he referred to as well-marked varieties, whereas, instead of using ecology, he used "the economy of nature". The Origin contains a high proportion of currently accepted ecological principles. Darwin labelled himself a naturalist. His discipline (natural history) was a blend of ecology and evolution in which he investigated both the patterns and the processes that determine the organization of life. Reductionist approaches, however, often keep the two disciplines separated from each other, undermining a full understanding of natural phenomena that might be favored by blending ecology and evolution through the development of a modern Theory of Natural History based on Darwin's vision of the study of life.

Religion, spirituality and health: a social scientific approach, 2017

The chapter traces the development of Charles Darwin's ideas about the concept of organic evolution, discusses the reasons why he delayed publishing his ideas for many years, and describes the major elements of the theories of evolution presented in his 1859 book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. The influence of his grandfather's ideas about evolution is also discussed, as well as the common themes found in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species and the writings of Erasmus Darwin (his grandfather), the Comte de Buffon, and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. These similarities include their emphasis on the similarities between the breeding of domesticated plants and animals (which Charles Darwin called Artificial Selection) and the natural processes underlying the evolution of wild plants and animals (which Charles Darwin called Natural Selection). The chapter discusses key elements of Darwin's theories of evolution, including that: (1) animals reproduce at a rate that exceeds their food resources, (2) which creates competition for resources, (3) that members of a species vary in terms of their inherited characteristics, (4) that some inherited characteristics enhance survival and reproduction, (5) that such adaptive characteristics are inherited by offspring, (6) which leads to the spread of these adaptive characteristics within the population, such that (7) successive generations of the descendants of members of the original species may become sufficiently different from their ancestors that they become a different kind of animal over time through the accumulation of adaptive characteristics. Keywords Adaptation • Common ancestor • Darwin • Evolution • Natural Selection • Origin of Species 5.1 Development of Darwin's Ideas Charles Darwin was born into an affluent English family in 1809 [1, 2], the same year Lamarck published his book about evolution, Philosophie Zoologique [3]. In 1825, Charles went to Edinburgh University, where his older brother Robert was studying medicine, to try his hand at medicine too. While there, he did coursework in geology and zoology and became interested in Natural History, especially invertebrate sea animals, which he studied throughout the rest of his life. Abandoning the

2009

He had travelled most of the major coastlines of the globe. For five years at a stretch. He had surveyed the flora and fauna of the islands, coastal waterfronts, and the nearby peninsula. He had also studied the marine reefs, landmass, rocks, soil and climatic characteristics. He had collected crates of specimens from the entire area under survey. And in the process there were two metamorphoses in his life – one academic and the other ideological. He had started the journey across the Atlantic in 1831 with a view to making a secure career in geology; but when he came back to the shores of England in 1836 he had already embarked on the path to become a biologist – and a foremost biologist of the nineteenth century. Second, he had boarded the ship HMS Beagle as a devout Christian; and five years later, when he set foot on the banks of the Thames, he had turned into an agnostic. Yes, you have rightly guessed that we are talking of Charles Robert Darwin. Since last year we are observing...

Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 2009

A careful reading of the 1858 papers by Charles Darwin and Alfred R. Wallace reveals that Wallace did not present a complete nomological theory of evolution and cannot be considered a co-discover of the theory of evolution by natural selection. Darwin must have misinterpreted Wallace's manuscript and became paranoid that Wallace came up with the same detailed theory he conceived and worked on for more than two decades. Darwin biased both Hooker and Lyell about Wallace having presented exactly the same theory that he had been developing for the past two decades, and they further biased readers of the published papers. The central point in Wallace's paper was that modifications observed under domestication are not true evolutionary changes as they reverted back to the original condition if the domesticated form became feral. This forms the origin of the myth that both Darwin and Wallace discovered the theory of evolution by natural selection. Wallace did advocate the cause of selective agents, but not the other essential causes for phyletic evolution. Charles Darwin alone must be credited with the development of this new paradigm of biological evolution which proved to be one of the major changes in human thinking.

Journal of the History of Biology, 1992

The American Biology Teacher, 1997

Figure 1. The HMS Beagle in the Straits of Magellan near Tierra del Fue o, late in 1832, from a painting by Conrad Martens appearing in Robert FitzRoy's Narrative of the Voyage of the Beagle (1839). FEW biology texts published in the past century fail to mention Charles Darwin, his voyage, and the subsequent discovery of the natural selection mechanism for evolution. Unfortunately, in most texts, the discovery and implications of evolution are l This image courtesy of Lightbinders' Darwin CD-ROM 2nd Edition. For further information about the Darwin CD-ROM, please contact Lightbinders,

Comptes Rendus Biologies, 2010

Theory in Biosciences, 2013

The British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913), who had to leave school aged 14 and never attended university, did extensive fieldwork, first in the Amazon River basin (1848-1852) and then in Southeast Asia (1854-1862). Based on this experience, and after reading the corresponding scientific literature, Wallace postulated that species were not created, but are modified descendants of preexisting varieties (Sarawak Law paper, 1855). Evolution is brought about by a struggle for existence via natural selection, which results in the adaptation of those individuals in variable populations who survive and reproduce (Ternate essay, 1858). In his monograph Darwinism (1889), and in subsequent publications, Wallace extended the contents of Darwin's Origin of Species (1859) into the Neo-Darwinian theory of biological evolution, with reference to the work of August Weismann (1834-1914). Wallace also became the (co)founder of biogeography, biodiversity research, astrobiology and evolutionary anthropology. Moreover, he envisioned what was later called the anthropocene (i.e., the age of human environmental destructiveness). However, since Wallace believed in atheistic spiritualism and mixed up scientific facts and supernatural speculations in some of his writings, he remains a controversial figure in the history of biology.

2023

This book aims to encourage the reading of "On the Origin of Species" and to include it in the teaching of evolution. With a comprehensive overview of the development of Darwin's theory, the volume provides relevant aspects of Darwin's life and work in connection with the broader context of his time. The historical and philosophical analysis, mirrored in the socio-cultural scope, enables the diachronic reading of the text. It is built on various sources of historians and philosophers of science and sheds fresh light on them. Its uniqueness is the broad structure that covers four parts: the pre-Darwinian concepts of species changes; some key elements of Darwin's pursuit of the causes of evolution, from his voyage on Beagle to the publication of his groundbreaking work; chapter-by-chapter analysis of the "Origin"; and subsequent developments in evolutionary thought. This book is of interest to undergraduate and graduate students, scholars in history, philosophy, and sociology of science and science education, as well as the general public.

The issue on the beginning of the universe has generated arguments overtime; scholars of various persuasions within the circumference of the subject matter have argued for and against the different and various postulated paradigms in relation to the genesis of the universe. The universe as the crux of the argument is a composite of both material and immaterial substances; it houses element both abstract and concrete. To this end, some have theorised to this position that the universe has a beginning, has come into being through the instrumentality of a process spearheaded by a Creator-Being. This is the creation account popularly acclaimed by theologians and scholars who tend to religion vis-à-vis the genesis of the universe. To the contrary, however, some have averred that the genesis of the universe in toto began via a process; yet this process is one in which the notion of a Creator-Being is absent. Of such postulations are the big bang theory, and Darwinian theory of evolution.