Divergent Evolution Through Cumulative Segregation

1891 FIRST DESCRIPTION OF WHAT IS NOW KNOWN AS EVOLUTIONARY GENETIC DRIFT. 8 1/2 inches tall paper extracted from Annual Report of the Smithsonian Institution for the Year 1891, pages 269-336 (68 pages) in archival mylar binder. Read December 15, 1887. from the Journal of Zoology of the Linnean Society, September 1888, Vol. XX, pp. 189-274. JOHN THOMAS GULICK (1832 - 1923) was an American missionary and naturalist from Hawaii. He performed some of the first modern evolutionary studies, starting with a collection of Hawaiian land snails. In 1872, Gulick was the first to propose the theory that the majority of evolutionary changes are the result of chance variation, which has no effect on the survival and reproductive success of a species (today called genetic drift). He came to this theory while noting that there was a large diversity of local populations of Hawaiian land snails (Achatinella) which showed random variation under seemingly identical environmental conditions. Although he certainly promoted the importance of random factors in evolution, he also was a strong supporter of Darwinian natural selection, and this led to disagreement with Moritz Wagner's Migration Theory of the origin of species. Divergent Evolution was communicated to the Linnean Society by Alfred Wallace. This is the first appearance of Gulick's thoughts on divergent evolution, and presents Gulick's thought on what came to be known as nonadaptive geographical variation in snails of the genus Achatinella. These organisms Gulick studied in the valleys of Oahu in the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). From this research Gulick was able to demonstrate the importance of geographical isolation in formation of new species. Gulick was a well known evolutionist and played an important role in the discussions on critical aspects of natural selection.

Product Info

Publisher: Smithsonian Institution

Year: 1892

Type: Used

Binding: Softcover

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