The Evolution of Evolutionary Biology essays

The Evolution of Evolutionary Biology essays A century and a half ago, a man by the name of Charles Darwin went on a journey around the world. This trip sparked an idea that would permanently alter the future of biology, and in conjunction with a certain Alfred Wallace, led to the publication of one of the most controversial and earth-shaking documents in history. Fifty years prior, Jean Lamarck made a benighted attempt to explain the vast differences in species; he was an ignoramus to be sure, but an asset nonetheless. You see, in the beginning, it was widely and thoroughly believed that higher power, a god, had created every creature to be perfect as-is, adapted to its exact surroundings with no need in the present or past for a change. Lamarck first scraped on the idea of environmental influence on an individual's form in 1809 when he stated that the environment affects the shape and organization of animals and that the "frequent use of organs, when confirmed by habit, increases the function of that organ...and endows it with a size and power that it does not possess in animals which exercise it less," meaning that when an animal uses, say, an arm more than another (as the stresses of the environment force it to), that population of animals will start to have stronger, larger arms. Lamarckian evolution is fundamentally flawed, as we can all see that an animal won't grow larger arms unless it is genetically prone to. The wonderfully outspoken Wallace made observations of this in early 1858, mocking Lamarck's early attempts at explaining the wonders of evolution. At the side of the famous Englishman Darwin, the quasi-connected duo published several papers on the theory of natural selection in regards to the origin of species. In these papers, Lamarck was shown to be a silly moron, and more importantly, the shroud of mystery around the creation of all life was pierced. Many people did, and still regard Wallace's (but more famously, Darwin's) final clarification of Lamarck'...