J. David Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164122
- eISBN:
- 9780231537667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164122.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter examines how tree-like representations took on new meanings as an understanding of genetics and the importance of population-based studies emerged. Before Charles Darwin's On the Origin ...
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This chapter examines how tree-like representations took on new meanings as an understanding of genetics and the importance of population-based studies emerged. Before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, evolutionary trees of life were a novelty. After Darwin, they became a necessity, thanks to the foundations that he laid for “descent with modification by means of natural selection.” With the turn of the twentieth century, American scientists began to engage in the production and dissemination of phylogenetic trees. The science of paleontology began ascending in stature in the United States, especially in East Coast institutions. This chapter looks at some of the scientists who produced a variety of evolutionary trees guided by Darwin's precepts, particularly Ernst Haeckel. It also considers the trees produced by Max Fürbinger and the decline in audience interest in visual representations of trees.Less
This chapter examines how tree-like representations took on new meanings as an understanding of genetics and the importance of population-based studies emerged. Before Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species was published in 1859, evolutionary trees of life were a novelty. After Darwin, they became a necessity, thanks to the foundations that he laid for “descent with modification by means of natural selection.” With the turn of the twentieth century, American scientists began to engage in the production and dissemination of phylogenetic trees. The science of paleontology began ascending in stature in the United States, especially in East Coast institutions. This chapter looks at some of the scientists who produced a variety of evolutionary trees guided by Darwin's precepts, particularly Ernst Haeckel. It also considers the trees produced by Max Fürbinger and the decline in audience interest in visual representations of trees.
J. David Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164122
- eISBN:
- 9780231537667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164122.003.0006
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter examines how scientific interest in Charles Darwin's evolutionary trees declined and then increased in the twentieth century. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the reality of ...
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This chapter examines how scientific interest in Charles Darwin's evolutionary trees declined and then increased in the twentieth century. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the reality of evolution became firmly established among scientists. Darwin deserves credit for the overused idea of a paradigm shift—evolution was a scientific “fact,” but not so for his theory of natural selection. Intellectual retreat from Darwin's natural selection can be attributed in part to his failure to provide an adequate hypothesis of inheritance or the source of variation on which his natural selection was to act. This chapter explores how the still emerging field of vertebrate paleontology and the ideas of evolutionary mechanisms that accompanied them affected visual representations of evolution in trees. In particular, it looks at the so-called bone wars between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in the United States, Henry Fairfield Osborn's aristogenetic trees, and the rise of neocreationism. It also considers the contributions of William King Gregory, Alfred Sherwood Romer, and George Gaylord Simpson in visualizing biological order.Less
This chapter examines how scientific interest in Charles Darwin's evolutionary trees declined and then increased in the twentieth century. As the nineteenth century drew to a close, the reality of evolution became firmly established among scientists. Darwin deserves credit for the overused idea of a paradigm shift—evolution was a scientific “fact,” but not so for his theory of natural selection. Intellectual retreat from Darwin's natural selection can be attributed in part to his failure to provide an adequate hypothesis of inheritance or the source of variation on which his natural selection was to act. This chapter explores how the still emerging field of vertebrate paleontology and the ideas of evolutionary mechanisms that accompanied them affected visual representations of evolution in trees. In particular, it looks at the so-called bone wars between Edward Drinker Cope and Othniel Charles Marsh in the United States, Henry Fairfield Osborn's aristogenetic trees, and the rise of neocreationism. It also considers the contributions of William King Gregory, Alfred Sherwood Romer, and George Gaylord Simpson in visualizing biological order.
J. David Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164122
- eISBN:
- 9780231537667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164122.003.0004
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter examines Charles Darwin's various evolutionary trees, which deal more with his attempts to understand the process of evolution than its pattern. The idea of “descent with modification,” ...
More
This chapter examines Charles Darwin's various evolutionary trees, which deal more with his attempts to understand the process of evolution than its pattern. The idea of “descent with modification,” or simply evolution, was a hotly debated topic by the early nineteenth century. The debate lacked what Darwin provided, along with Alfred Russel Wallace: a mechanism, and the mechanism was natural selection. After the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, no one would ever look at a tree of life in the same way. This chapter looks at Darwin's tree sketches done during the 1840s and 1850s, as well as his “Big Book” that deals with evolution by means of natural selection. It also analyzes a pair of Darwin's trees with competing views on the origin of placental and marsupial mammals and another tree that reflects how Darwin saw man's place in nature.Less
This chapter examines Charles Darwin's various evolutionary trees, which deal more with his attempts to understand the process of evolution than its pattern. The idea of “descent with modification,” or simply evolution, was a hotly debated topic by the early nineteenth century. The debate lacked what Darwin provided, along with Alfred Russel Wallace: a mechanism, and the mechanism was natural selection. After the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species in 1859, no one would ever look at a tree of life in the same way. This chapter looks at Darwin's tree sketches done during the 1840s and 1850s, as well as his “Big Book” that deals with evolution by means of natural selection. It also analyzes a pair of Darwin's trees with competing views on the origin of placental and marsupial mammals and another tree that reflects how Darwin saw man's place in nature.
Michel Laurin
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520266476
- eISBN:
- 9780520947986
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520266476.003.0001
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter attempts to reconstruct evolutionary history. Inferring phylogenetic relationships between taxa and character evolution requires relatively sophisticated methods. The chapter describes ...
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This chapter attempts to reconstruct evolutionary history. Inferring phylogenetic relationships between taxa and character evolution requires relatively sophisticated methods. The chapter describes several techniques and concepts widely used in modern evolutionary biology, first discussing the principles of nomenclature and then looking at modern phylogenetics and the use of cladistics to infer character history and phylogeny. Cladistics can be used to infer character history based on parsimony, a principle that requires as few character transformations as possible. The chapter also discusses the construction of evolutionary trees, paleontological dating of taxa, and molecular dating.Less
This chapter attempts to reconstruct evolutionary history. Inferring phylogenetic relationships between taxa and character evolution requires relatively sophisticated methods. The chapter describes several techniques and concepts widely used in modern evolutionary biology, first discussing the principles of nomenclature and then looking at modern phylogenetics and the use of cladistics to infer character history and phylogeny. Cladistics can be used to infer character history based on parsimony, a principle that requires as few character transformations as possible. The chapter also discusses the construction of evolutionary trees, paleontological dating of taxa, and molecular dating.
J. David Archibald
- Published in print:
- 2014
- Published Online:
- November 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780231164122
- eISBN:
- 9780231537667
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7312/columbia/9780231164122.003.0008
- Subject:
- Biology, Evolutionary Biology / Genetics
This chapter examines how perceptions of our place in nature evolved over time as we discovered and attempted to understand the vast living and nonliving world that surrounds and defines us. How the ...
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This chapter examines how perceptions of our place in nature evolved over time as we discovered and attempted to understand the vast living and nonliving world that surrounds and defines us. How the vast majority of people view humans' place in nature, even when accepting that evolution occurred, can be summed up by a quotation in William Shakespeare's Hamlet: “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!” This chapter looks back at the earliest tree-like attempts to visualize supposed racial differences as well as the ancestry of all living humans and proceeds by discussing Charles Darwin's evolutionary trees and the question of when humans departed Africa as well as its implication for the meaning of the human race. It concludes that evolution has not produced a clearcut phylogeny of humans or any group of plants or animals that would result in a neatly branching family tree.Less
This chapter examines how perceptions of our place in nature evolved over time as we discovered and attempted to understand the vast living and nonliving world that surrounds and defines us. How the vast majority of people view humans' place in nature, even when accepting that evolution occurred, can be summed up by a quotation in William Shakespeare's Hamlet: “What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an Angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!” This chapter looks back at the earliest tree-like attempts to visualize supposed racial differences as well as the ancestry of all living humans and proceeds by discussing Charles Darwin's evolutionary trees and the question of when humans departed Africa as well as its implication for the meaning of the human race. It concludes that evolution has not produced a clearcut phylogeny of humans or any group of plants or animals that would result in a neatly branching family tree.
John L. Gittleman and Andrea J. Webster
- Published in print:
- 2004
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520238671
- eISBN:
- 9780520930162
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520238671.003.0029
- Subject:
- Biology, Animal Biology
This chapter concentrates the life-history patterns to show which traits of giant pandas (e.g., birth weight, growth rate) are significantly different from reproductive rates in related terrestrial ...
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This chapter concentrates the life-history patterns to show which traits of giant pandas (e.g., birth weight, growth rate) are significantly different from reproductive rates in related terrestrial carnivores. It also addresses how phylogenies or evolutionary trees can lend insight into what biological characteristics contribute to extinction risk. Characteristics that are indicative of population decline and small geographic ranges (rarity) are most salient. A phylogenetic analysis combined with a database of biological traits associated with extinction risk can be used in a predictive manner for explaining why some species are at risk and why some are not. Using phylogenies to examine the comparative biology of threatened species such as the giant panda will not only help this magnificent species but also leave a legacy to protect many other similar species. Furthermore, a panel reports updates criteria used in the consideration of previous reintroduction proposals.Less
This chapter concentrates the life-history patterns to show which traits of giant pandas (e.g., birth weight, growth rate) are significantly different from reproductive rates in related terrestrial carnivores. It also addresses how phylogenies or evolutionary trees can lend insight into what biological characteristics contribute to extinction risk. Characteristics that are indicative of population decline and small geographic ranges (rarity) are most salient. A phylogenetic analysis combined with a database of biological traits associated with extinction risk can be used in a predictive manner for explaining why some species are at risk and why some are not. Using phylogenies to examine the comparative biology of threatened species such as the giant panda will not only help this magnificent species but also leave a legacy to protect many other similar species. Furthermore, a panel reports updates criteria used in the consideration of previous reintroduction proposals.
Andrew V. Z. Brower and Randall T. Schuh
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- September 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781501752773
- eISBN:
- 9781501752797
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501752773.003.0011
- Subject:
- Biology, Biochemistry / Molecular Biology
This chapter examines molecular clocks and time trees. Although laden with numerous process assumptions that may or may not be true (or knowable), the idea is appealingly straightforward: if amino ...
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This chapter examines molecular clocks and time trees. Although laden with numerous process assumptions that may or may not be true (or knowable), the idea is appealingly straightforward: if amino acid substitutions in proteins occurred at a relatively steady pace that were more or less constant both over time and along each of the branches of a diverging evolutionary tree, then the number of substitutions would be directly related to the time since the taxa in question diverged from one another. However, evidence does not support a universal molecular clock. Evidence might or might not support “local” clocklike evolution among closely related taxa over relatively short time spans. Although absolute minimum ages for clades may be inferred from fossils, from biogeographical patterns, or extrapolated from secondary calibrations, such age estimates are subject to potentially significant error due to vagaries of geological dating as well as ambiguities of fossil identity. The test of a time tree hypothesis is to discover new fossil evidence that corroborates or falsifies it.Less
This chapter examines molecular clocks and time trees. Although laden with numerous process assumptions that may or may not be true (or knowable), the idea is appealingly straightforward: if amino acid substitutions in proteins occurred at a relatively steady pace that were more or less constant both over time and along each of the branches of a diverging evolutionary tree, then the number of substitutions would be directly related to the time since the taxa in question diverged from one another. However, evidence does not support a universal molecular clock. Evidence might or might not support “local” clocklike evolution among closely related taxa over relatively short time spans. Although absolute minimum ages for clades may be inferred from fossils, from biogeographical patterns, or extrapolated from secondary calibrations, such age estimates are subject to potentially significant error due to vagaries of geological dating as well as ambiguities of fossil identity. The test of a time tree hypothesis is to discover new fossil evidence that corroborates or falsifies it.