Chapter 18 Lecture Enrichment Ideas
Clarify the fact that Lamarck was the first to try to develop a possible mechanism for evolution and should be considered among the great biologists of history, rather than the one who got evolution wrong.
Speculate how Darwin would have reacted to Mendel's work if he had read it (Darwin had a copy of the publication of Mendel's papers, but the pages had never been cut so that it could be read). Darwin did not have a mechanism to explain the passage of traits from parents to offspring, which seriously troubled him.
Consider why Darwin waited over twenty years from his seminal trip on the HMS Beagle to publish his theory. One of the topics to consider is Darwin's feelings for his wife, who was a very religious woman, and the impact that the theory of natural selection and evolution had on those who considered the theory of special creation to be absolute truth.
Note that both Darwin and Wallace had extensive travel experiences, where they saw a wide range of organisms, before they formulated their theory of evolution by natural selection.
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