Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T08:49:36.990Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The competitive Darwin

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 April 2016

Hugh Paterson
Hugh Paterson*
Affiliation:
Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although Darwin was not the first to conceive directional selection as a mechanism of phenotypic change, it is his ideas that were received, and that have shaped population biology to this day. A significant change in his theoretical orientation occurred in the mid-1850s. About then he abandoned environmental selection in favor of competitive selection, and adopted relative adaptation with all its consequences as an alternative. These ideas changed his thinking fundamentally and shaped his argument throughout the writing of his great book. It is still these ideas that predominate today.

Here I examine Darwin's ideas in relation to his principle of divergence, sexual selection, and the nature and origin of species. Finally I suggest that had he not misunderstood the function of sexual communication he might well have understood the nature of species and provided a more penetrating resolution to Herschell's “mystery of mysteries,” with which he opened his book.

Type
Generating Diversity
Information
Paleobiology , Volume 31 , Issue S2 , 2005 , pp. 56 - 76
Copyright
Copyright © The Paleontological Society 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Literature Cited

Barrett, P. H. 1977. The collected papers of Charles Darwin. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Bastock, M. 1967. Courtship: a zoological study. Heinemann, London.Google Scholar
Beatty, J. 1985. Speaking of species. Pp. 265–282in Kohn, D., ed. The Darwinian heritage. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.Google Scholar
Blyth, E. 1835. An attempt to classify the ‘varieties’ of animals, with observations on the marked seasonal and other changes which naturally take place in various British species and which do not constitute varieties. Magazine of Natural History 8:40–53.Google Scholar
Blyth, E. 1837. On the psychological distinctions between man and all other animals; and the consequent diversity of human influence over the inferior ranks of creation, from any mutual or reciprocal influence exercised among the latter. Magazine of Natural History, new series, 1:1–9, 77–85, 131–141.Google Scholar
Crow, J., and Kimura, M. 1970. An introduction to population genetics theory. Harper and Row, New York.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1858. On the variation of organic beings in a state of nature. Journal of the Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Zoology) 3:45–52.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1859. On the origin of species. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1862. The various contrivances by which orchids are fertilised by insects. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1874. The descent of man and selection in relation to sex. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Darwin, C. 1877. The different forms of flowers on plants of the same species. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Darwin, F., and Seward, A. C. 1903. More letters of Charles Darwin. Appleton, New York.Google Scholar
Davison, G. W. H. 1981. Sexual selection and the mating system of Argusianus argus (Aves: Phasianidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 15:91–104.Google Scholar
de Beer, G. 1958. Evolution by natural selection. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
de Beer, G., Rowlands, M. J., and Skramovsky, B. M. 1967. Darwin's notebooks on transmutation of species, Part VI. Pages excised by Darwin. Bulletin of the British Museum (Natural History) 3(5):131–176.Google Scholar
Dodds, P. N., Clarke, A. E., and Newbigin, E. 1996. A molecular perspective on pollination in flowering plants. Cell 85:141–144.Google Scholar
Dulac, C., and Axell, R. 1995. A novel family of genes encoding putative pheromone receptors in mammals. Cell 83:196–206.Google Scholar
Eldredge, N., and Gould, S. J. 1972. Punctuated equilibrium: an alternative to phyletic gradualism. Pp. 82–115in Schopf, T. J. M., ed. Models in paleontology. Freeman, Cooper, San Francisco.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. 1936. The measurement of selective intensity. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B 121:58–62.Google Scholar
Fisher, R. 1958. The genetical theory of natural selection. Dover, New York.Google Scholar
Gould, S. J., and Calloway, C. B. 1980. Clams and brachiopods—ships that pass in the night. Paleobiology 6:383–396.Google Scholar
Grosberg, R. K., and Hart, H. W. 2000. Mate selection and the evolution of highly polymorphic self/nonself recognition genes. Science 289:2111–2113.Google Scholar
Hector, A., and Hooper, R. 2002. Darwin and the first ecological experiment. Science 295:639–640.Google Scholar
Hengeveld, R. 1992. Dynamic biogeography. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Holy, T. E., Dulac, C., and Meister, M. 2000. Responses of vomeronasal neurons to natural stimuli. Science 289:1562–1572.Google Scholar
Jaenisch, R., and Bird, A. 2004. Epigenetic regulation of gene expression: how the genome integrates intrinsic and environmental signals. Nature Genetics 33 (Suppl.):245–254.Google Scholar
Karn, M. N., and Penrose, L. S. 1951. Birth weight and gestation time in relation to maternal age, parity and infant survival. Annals of Eugenics 16:147–164.Google Scholar
Kottler, M. 1985. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace: two decades of debate over natural selection. Pp. 367–432in Kohn, D., ed. The Darwinian heritage. Princeton University Press, Princeton, N.J.Google Scholar
Lewontin, R. C. 2000. The triple helix. Harvard University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Lill, A. 1974. Sexual behaviour of the lek-forming White-bearded Manakin (Manacus manacus trinitatis Hartert). Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 36:1–36.Google Scholar
Lyell, C. 1832. Principles of geology, II. John Murray, London.Google Scholar
Milinski, M., and Bakker, T. C. M. 1990. Female sticklebacks use male colouration in mate choice and hence avoid parasitized males. Nature 332:330–333.Google Scholar
Milkman, R. 1982. Towards a uniform selection theory. Pp. 105–118in Milkman, R., ed. Perspectives on evolution. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.Google Scholar
Neuberger, M. S., and Novartis, T. 2002. Antibodies: a paradigm for the evolution of molecular recognition. Biochemical Society Transactions 30:341–350.Google Scholar
Nicholson, A. J. 1960. The role of population dynamics in natural selection. Pp. 477–521in Tax, S., ed. Evolution after Darwin. I. The evolution of life. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Noble, G. K. 1936. Courtship and sexual selection of the flicker (Colaptes auratus luteus). Auk 53:269–282.Google Scholar
Ospovat, D. 1981. The development of Darwin's theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Park, T. 1962. Beetles, competition, and populations. Science 138:1369–1375.Google Scholar
Paterson, H. E. H. 1993. Evolution and the recognition concept of species. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.Google Scholar
Raff, R. A. 1996. The shape of life. Chicago University Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Roelofs, W. L., and Rooney, A. P. 2003. Molecular genetics and evolution of pheromone biosynthesis in Lepidoptera. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 100:9179–9184.Google Scholar
Rohde, K. 1977. A non-competitive mechanism responsible for restricting niches. Zoologischer Anzeiger 199:164–172.Google Scholar
Rutherford, S. L., and Lindquist, S. 1998. Hsp90 as a capacitor for morphological evolution. Nature 396:336–342.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schlichting, C. D., and Pigliucci, M. 1998. Phenotypic evolution: a reaction norm perspective. Sinauer, Sunderland, Mass.Google Scholar
Simberloff, D. 1980. A succession of paradigms in ecology: essentialism to materialism and probabalism. Pp. 63–99in Saarinen, E., ed. Conceptual issues in ecology. D. Reidel, Dordrecht.Google Scholar
Sims, E. 1978. British thrushes. Collins, London.Google Scholar
Snow, D. 1962. A field study of the Black-and-white Manakin, Manacus manacus, in Trinidad. Zoologica 47:65–104.Google Scholar
Snow, D. 1976. The web of adaptation: bird studies in the American tropics. Collins, London.Google Scholar
Stauffer, R. C. 1975. Charles Darwin's natural selection. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Swanson, W. J., Nielsen, R., and Yang, Q. 2003. Pervasive adaptive evolution in mammalian fertilization proteins. Molecular Biology and Evolution 20:18–20.Google Scholar
Tinbergen, N. 1951. The study of instinct. Oxford University Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Waddington, C. H. 1968. The paradigm for the evolutionary process. Pp. 37–45in Lewontin, R. C., ed. Population biology and evolution. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.Google Scholar
Wallace, A. R. 1855. On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species. Annals and Magazine of Natural History 16(2):184–196.Google Scholar
Wallace, A. R. 1858. On the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original type. Proceedings of the Linnean Society of London (Zoology) 3:53–62.Google Scholar
Wallace, B. 1981. Basic population genetics. Columbia University Press, New York.Google Scholar
Walter, G. H. 1988. Competitive exclusion, coexistence and community structure. Acta Biotheoretica 37:281–313.Google Scholar
Walter, G. H. 2003. Insect pest management and ecological research. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Walter, G. H., Hulley, P. H., and Craig, A. J. F. K. 1984. Speciation, adaptation and interspecific competition. Oikos 43:146–148.Google Scholar
Wilson, L. G., ed. 1970. Sir Charles Lyell's scientific journals on the species question. Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.Google Scholar