Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, directional selection, and the evolutionary sciences today

  • REVIEW
  • Published:
Naturwissenschaften Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The book On the Origin of Species, published in November 1859, is an “abstract” without references, compiled by Charles Darwin from a much longer manuscript entitled “Natural Selection.” Here, I summarize the five theories that can be extracted from Darwin’s monograph, explain the true meaning of the phrase “struggle for life” (i.e., competition and cooperation), and outline Darwin’s original concept of natural selection in populations of animals and plants. Since neither Darwin nor Alfred R. Wallace distinguished between stabilizing and directional natural selection, the popular argument that “selection only eliminates but is not creative” is still alive today. However, I document that August Weismann (Die Bedeutung der sexuellen Fortpflanzung für die Selektions-Theorie. Gustav Fischer-Verlag, Jena, 1886) and Ivan Schmalhausen (Factors of evolution. The theory of stabilizing selection. The Blackiston Company, Philadelphia, 1949) provided precise definitions for directional (dynamic) selection in nature and illustrate this “Weismann–Schmalhausen principle” with respect to the evolutionary development of novel phenotypes. Then, the modern (synthetic) theory of biological evolution that is based on the work of Theodosius Dobzhansky (Genetics and the origin of species. Columbia University Press, New York, 1937) and others, and the expanded version of this system of theories, are outlined. Finally, I document that symbiogenesis (i.e., primary endosymbiosis, a process that gave rise to the first eukaryotic cells), ongoing directional natural selection, and the dynamic Earth (plate tectonics, i.e., geological events that both created and destroyed terrestrial and aquatic habitats) were the key processes responsible for the documented macroevolutionary patterns in all five kingdoms of life. Since the evolutionary development of the earliest archaic bacteria more than 3,500 mya, the biosphere of our dynamic planet has been dominated by prokaryotic microbes. Eubacteria, Archaea, and Cyanobacteria are, together with eukaryotic microorganisms (marine phytoplankton, etc.), the hidden “winners” in the Darwinian struggle for existence in nature.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Armbrust EV (2009) The life of diatoms in the world’s oceans. Nature 459:185–192

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ayala FJ (2007) Darwin’s greatest discovery: design without designer. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 104:8567–8573

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Barlow N (ed) (1958) The autobiography of Charles Darwin. Collins, London

  • Barrett PH, Corcos AF (1972) A letter from Alexander Humboldt to Charles Darwin. J Hist Med Allied Sci 72:150–172

    Google Scholar 

  • Bell G (2008) Selection: the mechanism of evolution, 2nd edn. Chapman and Hall, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Beutel R, Friedrich F, Leschen RAB (2009) Charles Darwin, beetles, and phylogenetics. Naturwissenschaften. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0601-2

  • Birchler JA, Veitia RA (2007) The gene balance hypothesis: from classical genetics to modern genomics. Plant Cell 19:395–402

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Birney E (2007) Evolutionary genomics: come fly with us. Nature 450:184–185

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bowler PJ (2003) Evolution: the history of an idea, 3rd edn. The University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Brodie ED, Moore AJ, Janzen TJ (1999) Visualizing and quantifying natural selection. Trends Ecol Evol 10:313–318

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bronn HG (1860) Schlusswort des Übersetzers. In: Darwin C (ed) Über die Entstehung der Arten, übersetzt von HG Bronn nach der 2. Auflage. E. Schweizerbart’sche Verlagshandlung und Druckerei, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Bueckers PG (1909) Die Abstammungslehre. Eine allgemeinverständliche Darstellung und Übersicht der verschiedenen Theorien mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Mutationstheorie. Verlag von Quelle & Meyer, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll RL (2000) Towards a new evolutionary synthesis. Trends Ecol Evol 15:27–32

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll SB (2006) The making of the fittest. DNA and the ultimate forensic record of evolution. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Conway Morris S (2009) The predictability of evolution: glimpses into a post-Darwinian world. Naturwissenschaften. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0607-9

  • Coyne JA, Orr HA (2004) Speciation. Sinauer, Sunderland

    Google Scholar 

  • Crane JA (2009) Time’s stamp on modern biogeography. Science 323:720–721

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dalrymple GB (2004) Ancient Earth, ancient skies. The age of Earth and its cosmic surroundings. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1839) Journal of researches into the geology and natural history of the various countries visited by H. M. S. Beagle. Henry Colburn, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1851/1854) A monograph of the sub-class Cirripedia, with figures of all the species, vols 1 and 2. Ray Society, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1859) On the origin of species by means of natural selection, or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life. John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1868) The variation of animals and plants under domestication (vols 1 and 2). John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1871) The descent of man, and selection in relation to sex (vols 1 and 2). John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1872a) The origin of species by means of natural selection, or, the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life, 6th edn. John Murray, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin C (1872b) The expression of the emotions in man and animals. John Murray, London

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Darwin F (ed) (1909) The foundation of the Origin of Species. Two essays in 1842 and 1844 by Charles Darwin. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Darwin C, Wallace A (1858) On the tendency of species to form varieties; and on the perpetuation of varieties and species by natural means of selection. Proc Linn Soc Lond 3:45–63

    Google Scholar 

  • Desmond A, Moore J (1991) Charles Darwin: the life of a tormented evolutionist. Warner, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • DeVries H (1901) Die Mutationstheorie. Band 1. Die Entstehung von Arten durch Mutation. Veit, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky T (1937) Genetics and the origin of species. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky T (1946) Genetic structure of natural populations. Year Book Carnegie Inst Wash 45:162–171

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky T (1949) Genetic structure of natural populations. Year Book Carnegie Inst Wash 48:201–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky T (1955) Evolution, genetics and man. Wiley, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky T (1972) Species of Drosophila: new excitement in an old field. Science 177:664–669

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Dobzhansky T, Ayala F, Stebbins GL, Valentine JW (1977) Evolution. Freeman, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Endler JA (1986) Natural selection in the wild. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Engels E-M (2005) Charles Darwin’s moral sense—on Darwin’s ethics of non-violence. Ann Hist Phil Biol 10:31–54

    Google Scholar 

  • Follmann H, Brownson C (2009) Darwin’s warm little pond revisited: from molecules to the origin of life. Naturwissenschaften. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0602-1

  • Goldschmidt R (1940) The material basis of evolution. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Gould SJ (2002) The structure of evolutionary theory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant PR, Grant BR (2002) Unpredictable evolution in a 30-year study of Darwin’s finches. Science 296:707–711

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Grant PR, Grant BR (2008) How and why species multiply. The radiation of Darwin’s finches. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory TR (2009) Understanding natural selection: essential concepts and common causes. Evo Edu Outreach 2:156–175

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haeckel E (1866) Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. Allgemeine Grundzüge der organischen Formen-Wissenschaft, mechanisch begründet durch die von Charles Darwin reformierte Descendenztheorie. Band 1 und 2. DeGruyter, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Haffer J (2007) Ornithology, evolution, and philosophy: the life and science of Ernst Mayr 1904–2005. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Haldane JBS (1959) The theory of natural selection today. Nature 183:710–713

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Harrison JWH (1920) General studies on the moths of the Geometrid genus Oporabia (Oporinia) with a special consideration of melanism in the Lepidoptera. J Genet 9:195–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hazen RM, Papineau D, Bleeker W, Downs RT, Ferry JM, McCoy TJ, Sverjensky DA, Yang H (2008) Mineral evolution. Am Mineral 93:1693–1720

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Helsen P, Browne RA, Anderson DA, Verdyck P, Van Dougen S (2009) Galapagos Opuntia (prickly pear) cacti: extensive morphological diversity, low genetic variability. Biol J Linn Soc 96:451–461

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hendry AP (2009) Evolutionary biology: speciation. Nature 458:162–164

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Herrada EA, Tessone CJ, Klemm K, Eguiluz VM, Hernandez-Careia E, Duarte CM (2008) Universal scaling of the tree of life. Plos One 3:e2757

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Huxley JS (1942) Evolution: the modern synthesis. Allen and Unwin, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Jackson ST (2009) Alexander von Humboldt and the general physics of the Earth. Science 324:596–597

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kettlewell HBD (1955) Selection experiments on industrial melanism in the Lepidoptera. Heredity 9:323–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klingsolver JG, Pfennig DW (2007) Patterns and power of phenotypic selection in nature. Bioscience 57:561–572

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2003) A comparative analysis of the Darwin–Wallace papers and the development of the concept of natural selection. Theory Biosci 122:343–349

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2004) Species concepts: leeches versus bacteria. Lauterbornia 52:171–175

    Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2008a) Darwin–Wallace principle of natural selection. Nature 453:27

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2008b) From Darwinism to evolutionary biology. Science 321:1157–1158

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2009a) Symbiogenesis, natural selection, and the dynamic Earth. Theory Biosci. doi:10.1007/s12064-009-0065-0

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U (2009b) Struggle to translate Darwin’s view of concurrency. Nature 458:967

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U, Niklas KJ (2004) The modern theory of biological evolution: an expanded synthesis. Naturwissenschaften 91:255–276

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U, Niklas KJ (2005) Endosymbiosis, cell evolution, and speciation. Theory Biosci 124:1–24

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U, Niklas KJ (2008) Macroevolution via secondary endosymbiosis: a Neo Goldschmidtian view of unicellular hopeful monsters and Darwin’s primordial intermediate form. Theory Biosci 127:277–289

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kutschera U, Niklas KJ (2009) Evolutionary plant physiology: Charles Darwin’s forgotten synthesis. Naturwissenschaften. doi:10.1007/s00114-009-0604-z

  • Kutschera U, Wirtz P (2001) The evolution of parental care in freshwater leeches. Theory Biosci 120:115–137

    Google Scholar 

  • Lamarck J-B de (1809) Philosophie Zoologique. Verdiere, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Levit GS, Hossfeld U, Olsson L (2004) The integration of darwinism and evolutionary morphology: Alexej Nikolajevich Sewertzoff (1866–1936) and the developmental basis of evolutionary change. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol 302B:343–354

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Levit GS, Hossfeld U, Olsson L (2005) From the “modern synthesis” to cybernetics: Ivan Ivanovich Schmalhausen (1884–1963) and his research program for a synthesis of evolutionary and developmental biology. J Exp Zool B Mol Dev Evol 306B:89–106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Losos JB, Ricklefs RE (2009) Adaptation and diversification on islands. Nature 457:830–836

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Love AC (2009) Marine invertebrates, model organisms, and the modern synthesis: epistemic values, evo-devo, and exclusion. Theory Biosci 128:19–42

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Majerus MEN (2009) Industrial melanism in the peppered moth, Biston betularia: an excellent teaching example of Darwinian evolution in action. Evo Edu Outreach 2:63–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mascarelli AL (2009) Low life. Nature 459:770–773

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1942) Systematics and the origin of species. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (1991) One long argument: Charles Darwin and the genesis of modern evolutionary though. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayr E (2004) What makes biology unique? Considerations on the autonomy of a scientific discipline. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Newman WA (1993) Darwin and cirripedology. Crustac Issues 8:349–434

    Google Scholar 

  • Niklas KJ (1997) The evolutionary biology of plants. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Niklas KJ, Kutschera U (2009) The evolutionary development of plant body plans. Funct Plant Biol 36:682–695

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paterson H (2005) The competitive Darwin. Paleobiology 31:56–74

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Preyer WT (1885) Spezielle Physiologie des Embryos. Untersuchungen über die Lebenserscheinungen vor der Geburt. Th. Grieben’s Verlag, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Reif W-E, Junker T, Hoßfeld U (2000) The synthetic theory of evolution: general problems and the German contribution to the synthesis. Theory Biosci 119:41–91

    Google Scholar 

  • Rensch B (1947) Neuere Probleme der Abstammungslehre. Die transspezifische Evolution. Enke, Stuttgart

    Google Scholar 

  • Rieseberg LH, Widmer A, Arntz AM, Burke JM (2002) Directional selection is the primary cause of phenotypic diversification. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 99:12242–12245

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rieseberg LH, Wood TE, Baack EJ (2006) The nature of plant species. Nature 440:524–527

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Rödl T, Berger S, Romero LM, Wikelski M (2007) Tameness and stress physiology in a predator-naive island species confronted with novel predation threat. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 274:577–582

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roth T, Kutschera U (2008) Darwin’s hypotheses on the origin of domestic animals and the history of German shepherd dogs. Ann Hist Philos Biol 13:175–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmalhausen II (1949) Factors of evolution. The theory of stabilizing selection. Blackiston, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Schopf JW (2006) Fossil evidence of Archaean life. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B 361:869–885

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Scott EC, Branch G (2009) Don’t call it “Darwinism”. Evo Edu Outreach 2:90–94

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simpson GG (1944) Tempo and mode in evolution. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Stebbins GL (1950) Variation and evolution in plants. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Tice MM, Lowe DR (2004) Photosynthetic microbiol mats in the 3416-Myr-old ocean. Nature 431:549–552

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Tower WL (1906) An investigation of evolution in chrysomelid beetles of the genus Leptinotarsa. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Tower WL (1918) The mechanism of evolution in Leptinotarsa. Carnegie Institution of Washington Publication, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Vieites DR, Nieto-Roman S, Barluenga M, Palanca A, Vences M, Meyer A (2004) Post-mating clutch piracy in an amphibian. Nature 431:305–308

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Wegener A (1929) Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane, 4th edn. Vieweg & Sohn, Braunschweig

    Google Scholar 

  • Weismann A (1886) Die Bedeutung der sexuellen Fortpflanzung für die Selektions-Theorie. Gustav Fischer-Verlag, Jena

    Google Scholar 

  • Weismann A (1892) Das Keimplasma. Eine Theorie der Vererbung. Gustav Fischer-Verlag, Jena

    Google Scholar 

  • Weismann A (1904) Vorträge über Abstammungslehre. Gustav Fischer-Verlag, Jena

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner R (2000) Ein Hotspot und Inselvulkanismus: Zur geologischen Entwicklung der Galapagosinseln. Sber Ges Naturf Freunde Berlin (NF) 39:5–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Wikelski M (2005) Evolution of body size in Galapagos marine iguanas. Proc R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 272:1985–1993

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Willis JH (2009) Origin of species in overdrive. Science 323:350–351

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

I thank two referees for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Bonn, Germany) for the financial support (AvH-fellowship 2008/09, Stanford, California, USA).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Biology, University of Kassel, Heinrich-Plett-Str. 40, 34109, Kassel, Germany

    Ulrich Kutschera

Authors
  1. Ulrich Kutschera
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ulrich Kutschera.

Additional information

This contribution represents the introduction to the Special Issue “Beyond the Origin: Charles Darwin and modern biology”(Guest editor: U. Kutschera)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kutschera, U. Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species, directional selection, and the evolutionary sciences today. Naturwissenschaften 96, 1247–1263 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-009-0603-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-009-0603-0

Keywords

Search

Navigation