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Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species

Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species. Alexander von Humboldt. Prussian Naturalist & Explorer (1769 – 1859) Avid explorer who wrote 30 volumes about his experiences and discoveries which influenced many other explores of the world.

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Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species

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  1. Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origin of Species

  2. Alexander von Humboldt • Prussian Naturalist & Explorer (1769 – 1859) Avid explorer who wrote 30 volumes about his experiences and discoveries which influenced many other explores of the world. • His first volume of his exploration of South America was one of the 3 books Charles Darwin brought with him on his voyage around the world (1831 – 1836).

  3. Charles Darwin • Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) (what was Darwin’s nick-name?) • Voyage of the Beagle (1831 – 1836) • Theory of Evolution by Means of Natural Selection – (1859) (what is the complete title of his book?) • Descent with Modification from a common ancestor.

  4. Alfred Russel Wallace • Alfred Russel Wallace (1823 – 1913) • Explorations of the Amazon and Malay Archipelago (1848 – 1862) • “ Wallace’s Line” ? • “Survival of the fittest” – “Struggle for existence” • What influence did Wallace’s letter (June 1858) have on Charles Darwin?

  5. Henry Walter Bates • Henry Walter Bates (1825 – 1892) • Exploration of the Amazon (with friend A.R.Wallace) (1848 – 1859) • Insect collection as supporting evidence of descent with modification. • Batesian Mimicry? (explain?)

  6. Eugene Dubois • Eugene Dubois (1858 – 1940) • Dutch paleontologist went to the Dutch East Indies (Sumatra) to look for the “missing link” of human evolution. (thought the cradle of evolution of man was in Asia) • He discovered a skull cap, thigh bone, and teeth of “Java Man” also known as Pithecanthropus which is now called Homo erectus. • Dubois stimulated the search for more “missing links” in the evolution of man.

  7. Charles Doolittle Walcott • Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850 – 1927) • Paleontologist who discovered precambrian fossils at bottom of Grand Canyon (1882) and later the Burgess Shale fossils in Canadian Rockies (1909) “Cambrian Explosion” of the fossil record. • How long was the “Cambrian Explosion” in years?

  8. Roy Chapman Andrews • Roy Chapman Andrews ( 1884 – 1960) • Explorer – Expeditions to Asia (Mongolia-1920’s) Gobi Desert to look for “missing link” but ended up finding dinosaur fossils including the first dinosaur eggs. • Velociraptor fossil found near fossil egg nests. • Also found small skulls of early mammals showing mammals lived at the time of dinosaurs. • Noted for his hat, revolver, and hatred of snakes. (Who does this sound like?)

  9. Walter Alvarez • Walter Alvarez (1940 - ) Luis Alvarez (father) – (1911 – 1988) • K-T Boundary Clay Layer – Irridium isotope • Asteroid impact 65 million years ago. • Chicxulub Crater – Yucatan Peninsula impact site • Evidence of periodic extinctions – history of life is not orderly and gradual process envisioned by Lyell & Darwin • Are the dinosaurs extinct?Support your answer.

  10. Impact

  11. John Ostrom • John Ostrom (1928 – 2005) • Paleontologist who discovered the fossil of Deinonychus in the bad lands of Montana and Wyoming (1964). • Discovered the close relationship between Archaeopteryx and Deinonychus and that birds are living descendents of dinosaurs – an evolved form of Theropod Dinosaurs. • Ostrom was the role model for “Dr. Alan Grant” in the move Jurassic Park. • Ostrom changed the view that dinosaurs were sluggish animals that dragged their tails. He also suggested that Hadrosaur dinosaurs traveled in herds.

  12. Neil Shubin • Neil Shubin (1960 - ) • Evolution Biologist who discovered (along with Ted Daeschler & Farish Jenkins) “Tiktaalik” on Ellesmere Island Canada (2004). • Tiktaalik (which means ‘fish with legs’) represents an evolutionary intermediate between fish and tetrapods.

  13. Tiktaalik

  14. Louis and Mary Leakey • Louis Leakey (1903 – 1972) Mary Leakey (1913 – 1996) • Both of the Leakey’s are noted for their discoveries of hominid tools and fossils in East Africa Olduvai Gorge including the Laetoli foot prints. • Discovered at Olduvai: Australopithecus, Homo habilis, and Homo erectus.

  15. Laetoli Foot Prints Homo habilis Home erectus • Hominid Tools

  16. Linus Pauling • Linus Pauling (1901 – 1994) • Nobel Prize for Chemistry (1954) and Peace Prize (1963) • Chemical structure of proteins (alpha helix) • Molecular basis for disease (Sickle Cell Hemoglobin) • Developed methods (along with Emile ZuckerKandl) to read the molecular clock of changes in proteins – eventually DNA due to mutrations • Using molecules to measure evolutionary change over time.

  17. Allan Wilson • Allan Wilson (1934 – 1991) • Follow up work of Pauling and Zuckerkandl using molecular clock to determine evolution of hominids. • Used DNA sequencing and PCR to help determine evolutionary dates of man. • Neandertals were older lineage of human as was Homo erectus. • Used mtDNA to support ‘out of Africa’ origins of man and ‘mitochondrial Eve’ around 150,000 yrs. ago.

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