eyewitness evolution

EVOLUTION Eyewitness [...]... think of evolution, and his real achievement was to present a coherent argument for evolution backed up by a mass of accurate information In the early 19th century the concept of evolution was very unpopular Lamarck’s theory (p 12) had been taken up in revolutionary France in the 1790s because it challenged the authority of the church and the king The fear of a similar revolution in England made evolution. .. that belonged to a separate group from the dinosaurs stage for evolutionary ideas Yet Owen used the dinosaurs as The first ichthyosaur was described in 1810 but was thought to be a crocodile In 1824 Buckland an argument against evolution, claiming that they were more found jaw fragments and other bones of a advanced than living reptiles Modern evolution theory dinosaur called Megalosaurus Richard Owen... to work out a mechanism by which evolution might occur The mechanism he thought of was natural selection (p 36), which is still accepted today as the main force behind evolution His other task was to THINKING THE SAME WAY collect enough evidence to convince people that CHIMPANZEE’S ARM Constantine Rafinesque was an The arm and hand of the eccentric American naturalist evolution had occurred Some evidence... use their expertise INSIDE STORY to criticize his evolutionary theory and so did not try Sliced in half, an ammonite reveals its to use fossils to support his theory Today, we intricate chambers know that while the rock record does, in fact, have many gaps, there is now plenty of fossil evidence that fills the evolutionary gaps For instance, the gradual evolution of the mammals from synapsid tetrapods... with its horizontal body balanced by a rigid tail SECRET AUTHOR In 1844, as dinosaur discoveries amazed the public, a pro -evolution book called The Vestiges of Creation was published Robert Chambers (1802–1871) was revealed as its author only after his death Chambers tried to make evolution respectable but was heavily criticized by scientists for inaccuracies Even so, it was very popular and warned Darwin... trees, and wading birds grew long legs by straining upward to keep themselves dry These two forces were not in harmony, according REVOLUTIONARY THINKER to Lamarck The first force working alone French naturalist Lamarck made people would produce perfect patterns of think about evolution increasing complexity among animals, but the second force interfered with the first For the second force to work, characteristics... particularly in the Galapagos Islands, he noted many puzzling features of the plants and animals that lived there He later understood that these peculiarities were the results of evolution THINKING AFLOAT Darwin was not an evolutionist when he stepped aboard HMS Beagle, nor when he returned But over the next five years the idea took shape in his mind He was never dogmatic about his theory but considered... spine (right) is huge compared with a human vertebra The first scientific description of the mastodon was by the French scientist and antievolutionist Cuvier (p 16) Unlike his colleague Lamarck (p 12), he came to accept the idea of extinction In Lamarck’s theory of evolution, no living things could become extinct because they all automatically progressed and adapted to their environment 15 Mastodon vertebra... Darwin sought information from several of them 25 Fossil evidence D  the fossil record carefully for Hand bones evidence that evolution had occurred At the time fossils did not provide him with the evidence that he needed He hoped that fossils would bridge the evolutionary gaps between the major groups of living animals but these were not immediately forthcoming Darwin explained their absence... above it, turning it into coal Coal seams can be 65 ft (20 m) thick 11 Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck J-B  L (1744–1829) was one of the first people to propose a theory of evolution He believed that there were two evolutionary forces at work The first was a “tendency to progression,” an automatic process by which all living things became more complex The second force was the need to fit in with . EVOLUTION Eyewitness