Select one of the five individuals listed above who you would argue had the most influence over
Darwin’s development of his theory of Natural selection. This could be a positive or a negative
influence.
Alfred Wallace could be considered both a positive and negative effect on Darwins life and research. Darwin was driven by Wallace to publish his findings for fear he would lose credit for the theory of natural selection and it would be given to Wallace. He gave Darwin the competition he needed to move forward.
Briefly (but completely) describe the contribution this individual made to the scientific community.
You must provide one link to an online source of information besides your textbook. No Wikipedia
sources! ( 10 pts)
Wallace had similar theories to Darwin regarding natural selection and provided Darwin with birds from his travels.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_14
From the bullet point list above (under “How does evolution work?”), identify the point (or points)
most directly affected by this individual’s work and thoroughly explain how this point was
influenced by your selected individual. Again, this could be a positive effect, meaning Darwin built
upon the knowledge this information provided, or a negative effect, meaning that Darwin
demonstrated that this individual’s idea(s) were incorrect and the mechanism of natural selection
was an alternative explanation. (10 pts)
In order for traits to evolve and change, they MUST be heritable.
In order for natural selection to occur, reproduction MUST occur!
Although his theories were similar they also solidified that reproduction must occur in order for a species to change or evolve. With the selection of desirable traits a species had more chance to pass them on to newer generations.
Could Darwin have developed his theory of natural selection without the influence and ideas of this
individual? Explain. (10 pts)
Darwin develop the theory without the help of Wallace. It was only after he was faced with the realization that wallace may recieve credit did he choose to publish his findings.
How did the attitude of the church affect Darwin and his eventual publication of his book On the
Origin of Species? (10 pts)
Darwin remained seperate from the church well aware of its beliefs and practices. However after the publishing of his book the idea of evolution has slowly shifted within the church.
Hello Nicole,
ReplyDeleteThink about this- what if Wallace hadn't been Darwin's competition? Perhaps Wallace had made a mistake in his idea of natural selection that Darwin did not make. In the case of Darwin not publishing his book, Wallace would have received credit for the idea of evolution and that is true. However, if Wallace had made a mistake in his findings, the idea of natural selection would still be up in the air. Therefore, Darwin would have published his book at some point, and the scientists would be focusing more on Darwin than Wallace. After all, Darwin and Wallace were both researching the exact same thing.
I personally chose Thomas Malthus because if Darwin hadn't read his essay, he never would have found the answer to the question of how species are formed. This reading helped him immensely to move forward in his research.
Hi Lisa,
DeleteMaking a more detailed report on their findings would have benefited my post greatly. It would have given a much clearer stance on why exactly I chose Wallace instead of Malthus. I do agree with you Malthus was an important part of Darwins research, no question about that. I was trying to focus more on the idea of Darwin being motivated and having Wallae aid him with the whole bird thing. Again my lack of detail made all my answers vague and incomplete. Although thank you for the wonderful comment as I will keep those points in mind next I do write a post. It is very helpful to know the details.
Good intro.
ReplyDelete"Wallace had similar theories to Darwin regarding natural selection and provided Darwin with birds from his travels."
Notice the point value on this question. It suggests that more was needed for this answer. A source doesn't replace your answer. It only supports it. Expand and provide detail for your reader. Don't assume they know anything about either Darwin or Wallace.
I agree with your choice of bullet points, but don't all bullet points apply to Wallace, given that he and Darwin developed the same theory?
I agree that the primary contribution of Wallace was the impetus to get Darwin to finally publish.
The final asks how the church influenced Darwin and his decision to publish his theory. Darwin waited more than 20 years to publish. Why? What were his concerns? And how did the church play a role in this?
These posts are papers and should be treated as such, complete with correct formatting and detailed paragraphs. Expand. Show me what you know.
Thank you for pointing out some of the mistakes I made. I did realize that all of the bullet points were relevant to both Darwin and Wallace so I tried to focus on the more important ones. Like I said in the email I realize I should have been more detailed in my response so now I know.
Delete