darwin's giraffe theory

[leifus]

I've been looking on the web for ages and can't find anything. I need to know what the initial hostility towards Darwin's theory was.......so if anyone can spread any light that would be great

[natureguy]

What theory did he have about Giraffes leifus?

[ron1863]

Is this it Leifus

A little over sixty years later, Charles Darwin commented on giraffe evolution in the sixth edition (1872) of his seminal book, Origin of Species:

The giraffe, by its lofty stature, much elongated neck, fore-legs, head and tongue, has its whole frame beautifully adapted for browsing on the higher branches of trees. It can thus obtain food beyond the reach of the other Ungulata or hoofed animals inhabiting the same country; and this must be a great advantage to it during dearths.... So under nature with the nascent giraffe the individuals which were the highest browsers, and were able during dearth to reach even an inch or two above the others, will often have been preserved; for they will have roamed over the whole country in search of food.... Those individuals which had some one part or several parts of their bodies rather more elongated than usual, would generally have survived. These will have intercrossed and left offspring, either inheriting the same bodily peculiarities, or with a tendency to vary again in the same manner; whilst the individuals, less favoured in the same respects will have been the most liable to perish.... By this process long-continued, which exactly corresponds with what I have called unconscious selection by man, combined no doubt in a most important manner with the inherited effects of the increased use of parts, it seems to me almost certain that an ordinary hoofed quadruped might be converted into a giraffe. (Darwin 1872, pp. 177ff.)

[leifus]

sorry!! yes it is the one where the giraffe's neck is long because the longer necked giraffes could reach the higher leaves so the shorter necks died out because they couldnt reach the leaves. The longer necked ones then reproduced and had more long necked giraffes.....

[leifus]

Originally Posted by ron1863

Is this it Leifus

A little over sixty years later, Charles Darwin commented on giraffe evolution in the sixth edition (1872) of his seminal book, Origin of Species:

The giraffe, by its lofty stature, much elongated neck, fore-legs, head and tongue, has its whole frame beautifully adapted for browsing on the higher branches of trees. It can thus obtain food beyond the reach of the other Ungulata or hoofed animals inhabiting the same country; and this must be a great advantage to it during dearths.... So under nature with the nascent giraffe the individuals which were the highest browsers, and were able during dearth to reach even an inch or two above the others, will often have been preserved; for they will have roamed over the whole country in search of food.... Those individuals which had some one part or several parts of their bodies rather more elongated than usual, would generally have survived. These will have intercrossed and left offspring, either inheriting the same bodily peculiarities, or with a tendency to vary again in the same manner; whilst the individuals, less favoured in the same respects will have been the most liable to perish.... By this process long-continued, which exactly corresponds with what I have called unconscious selection by man, combined no doubt in a most important manner with the inherited effects of the increased use of parts, it seems to me almost certain that an ordinary hoofed quadruped might be converted into a giraffe. (Darwin 1872, pp. 177ff.)

yes I just need to know why people were initially hostile to it....

[Rob_D]

Originally Posted by ron1863

......combined no doubt in a most important manner with the inherited effects of the increased use of parts..... (Darwin 1872, pp. 177ff.) [/i]

Darwin was showing that he did not have complete confidence in his theory of evolution by natural selection in this sentence. By saying this he is giving some credence to the ideas of Lamarkism - idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring.

Not sure if that's what you are refering to in the "initial hostility towards Darwin's theory"? Obviously many people were hostile to the theory of evolution by natural selection in general because it contradicted the view that species did not evolve.

Perhaps some who had accepted natural selection was true would not like the idea of it being just one part of a mechanism that included Lamarkism?

[ron1863]

Hostility was shown towards Darwin because in those days people were more religious and his thinking and theories went against all they believed i.e. that God created heaven and earth and all in it.

It is difficult today to understand how shocking this idea would be to the middle and upper classes of Darwin’s time. Religion wasn’t just the “opium of the masses”— it gave the wealthy moral justification for their privileged lives in a world of constant change and gross inequality. The world was unfolding according to God’s wishes, and anyone who questioned that endangered the very fragile social order.