ANTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Erasmus Darwin, The Selfish Gene, Punctuated Equilibrium
Document Summary
Embraced ideas regarding the change in organisms at the time. Trip and observations lad foundation for theories of evolution. Supposed to map all of south america. In most organisms every pair of parents produces multiple offspring. With most organisms populations size remains the same, no increase occurs over time. Members of populations compete for access to food. Continued collected data to further support his ideas. Published on the origin of species nov. 24 1859. Plants and animals have changed and continue to change in response to earth"s changes. Most evolutionary change was gradual, requiring thousands of millions of years. The primary mechanism for evolution was a process called natural selection. The millions of species present on earth today arose from a single original life form through a branching process called speciation, by which one species can give rise to two or more species. Principal defender of scientific attacks on darwin. Darwin receives essay june 18, 1858 reflected darwin"s ideas.
