Did Darwin Do it All? Explanations of Evolution

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As we are already aware, in order to achieve maximum scientific advancement, the contribution of multiple parties is required. This is true in all forms of science, including that of evolutionary theory. Charles Darwin is notoriously known as the creator of evolutionary theory, and while he made extremely large contributions to the research, he is not the sole individual responsible for the creation of evolutionary theory. For this post, we are going to investigate the roots of evolutionary theory to gain a deeper understanding of this topic.

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To begin, we are going to travel back two generations before the birth of Charles Darwin to Erasmus Darwin, Charles' grandfather. Erasmus Darwin was one of the revolutionary leaders of evolutionary theory, and his findings helped fuel Charles Darwin's research. Erasmus was a man of many trades,  acting as a physician, poet, philosopher, botanist, and naturalist.  He was also well versed in knowledge regarding topics such as paleontology, biogeography, systematics, embryology, and comparative anatomy. He began to discuss the possibility of life originating at one ancestor, forming one living filament. He also discussed how changes could occur in species based on competition and sexual selection. Through this, it became clear that the strongest members of a species would reproduce, passing on the strongest traits, and the weaker traits would eventually die out. 

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Another large contributor to the advancement of evolutionary theory was Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Though he was, and still is, largely discredited for his work, his theories led to what is the current evolutionary theory today. Charles Darwin and other notable scholars held him in high esteem. Darwin even stated that Lamarck was the first man to arouse attention to "the probability of all changes in the organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition." Lamarck was the first person to take an actual stance on the topic, declaring that changes in the environment forced changes in the species surrounding it so that they may survive. Disuse of an anatomical structure caused it to shrink and eventually disappear from the gene pool. This theory differs vastly form Charles Darwin's, however, it leads to the same conclusion that adaptions occur in lineage over a period of time. Lamarck even began to question natural selection, though it was not explored much past the idea of a concept. Lamarck believed that evolution dealt with perfection, and was not driven by chance. He believed that all species that currently exist merely evolved from previous species, and that there was no such thing as extinction. Though his ideas vary from Charles Darwin's, Darwin researched his work thoroughly and elaborated on his concepts. 

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The next notable contributor to evolutionary theory that we are going to discuss is Thomas Malthus. Malthus presented even another perspective of evolution. He proposed the idea that overpopulation would lead to famine and poverty, which would eventually consume the human race. This perspective eventually led to Darwin's theory of Natural Selection. Darwin, along with Wallace, determined that overproduction would create a competitive environment, and that variation within a species would produce individuals that faced a higher chance of survival. The perspective offered by Malthus is very similar to what can be seen in Modern China, as overpopulation has led to famine and poverty, and the Chinese government has made an attempt to control birthrates and overpopulation. 

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Georges Cuvier, another contributor to the advancement of evolutionary theory, believed that organisms worked as integrated wholes, and that no part of the organism could change without impairing function. Through the study of many fossils, particularly those of elephants, he developed the basic idea of species extinction. He determined that Earth had gone through abrupt changes that could have wiped out a number of species. Due to Cuvier's work, extinction became a fact that all future scientific theories of life had to explain, including evolution. 

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All of the aforementioned scholars led Charles Darwin to the research that he himself conducted.  This includes his time spent at the Galapagos islands and the information he was able to gather there. What a lot of people don't realize is that Darwin didn't focus sole on the evolution of animal species, in fact, one of his first discoveries was that raised beaches are caused by earthquakes. He realized this with the discovery of rocks that had recently been underwater, but had been moved up-shore after an earthquake. This was evidence of geological change. He also realized that animals would have to adapt accordingly to this change in environment. Another interesting discovery that Darwin realized when he returned to England from the Galapagos was that a finch's beak will adapt to its diet and environment. If one of these factors changed, so would the finch's beak, accordingly. There are, however, no records of where each observed finch originated. One other notable observation that occurred during Darwin's time at the Galapagos islands was the distribution pattern of mockingbirds in the Galapagos islands. Darwin noticed four different mockingbird variations, with one distinct variation located on each of the three islands, and one variation that was found on all three. Darwin became curious as to why there would be separated species on each island, if each island was similar to the ones surrounding. 

Isn't it amazing how your ideas can inspire others?