Talk:Introduction to Paleoanthropology/Darwinian Thought

For the next draft, the death of the "fixity of species" idea needs to be clarified. Section 1.1 says that LeClerc and Lamark moved beyond it, but the next section gives Darwin the credit for it. (The first Darwin section was very readably put together, by the way.)

It's not really clear why the three Selection bits (Individual, Directional, and Stabilizing) are subsections under "Advantages and Disadvantages".

In Darwin's day, the idea that natural selection could change a chimpanzee into a human... was unthinkable. -- I think this should be revised to avoid mentioning the chimpanzee-human thing. Although you do state "apelike creature" in the next paragraph, there are enough people who will seize on any chance to claim (incorrectly) that scientists think we descended from chimpanzees that it's best just not to give them any opening in the first place.

But only a few endorsed Darwin's view that major changes occur through the accumulation of small variations. -- Should the eye dilemma be mentioned here, or would it be unnecessary detail? (PBS Evolution of the Eye)

Some resources:

Darwiniana and Evolution

Evolutionary Classics

Early Theories of Evolution

Alfred Russel Wallace is gapingly missing from this discussion. --Bedawyn 20:55, 2 Oct 2004 (UTC)