Evolutionary Biology - Essay Example

On the side of the table with 5 chairs, the guests seated are, in the order running from my end of the table to that with the empty chair: Charles Darwin, my brother Hunter, Carl Linnaeus, my sister Cara, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, and my dad John. Cast of Characters The seven guests gathered around the table from the start of the meal represent some of the greatest minds in genetics, evolutionary theory, and many other fields, from across the centuries. To begin with the guest seated at my right hand: Charles Darwin Despite the level of company gathered, Charles Darwin, who was born in Britain in 1809 and died in 1882, is one of the most distinguished guests.

More than any other historical figure, he enjoys a widespread association with evolutionary theory. After periods of religious and scientific study in the UK, Darwin joined the naval research vessel HMS Beagle in December 1831, for what was to be a 5-year voyage around the world, and in the course of which he collected much of the data which would form the basis of his great work. He took samples and recorded findings from the Canary Islands, South America, the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand, Australia, Mauritius, and the Cape.

While his work on fossils and in other fields was significant, it is for his theory of evolution and natural selection, as enshrined in the classic 1859 text, On the Origin of Species, that Darwin is principally remembered. His findings were accepted by most scientists within his lifetime, and he was honoured with a state funeral at Westminster Abbey, London. Carl Linnaeus Linnaeus lived in Sweden from 1707-1778, and is generally remembered for his work as a preeminent zoologist and botanist.

Thanks to Linnaeus’ formidable work in collecting, examining, and classifying thousands of species, the work of organising and understanding different organisms and the way in which they relate to each other is now much easier. Indeed, Linnaeus created the framework which is now almost universally used to differentiate organisms, in the form of his taxonomy and binomial nomenclature. The former is the hierarchy by which an organism’s relation to other organisms can be traced and understood; the latter is the method for naming and identifying organisms.

Thomas Robert Malthus Malthus was a British thinker and clergyman who lived from 1766 to 1834. His interests were primarily in political economy and demographics, or the study of populations and their characteristics. While most of the guests at dinner tonight are equally interested in all aspects of life on earth, whether human or plant or animal, Malthus focused on trends in changing human populations, and the factors which drive them and check them. Wilhelm Weinberg Weinberg, a German Jewish scientist, lived from 1862 to 1937, and was based in Stuttgart for most of this time.

While his important contribution to the study of genetics went unrecognized for several decades after his death, he is now acknowledged as a leading figure in this field of study, being credited with developing the principle of genetic equilibrium. Gregor Johann Mendel Gregor Mendel was, by vocation, a monk, living within the Austrian Empire from 1822 to 1844. He is now considered by many to be the founding father of the study of genetics, and is particularly well-known for his studies of variation in pea plants, of which he grew nearly 30,000 over the course of his studies.

While the significance of his work was not fully realized until the early years of