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Darwin, Darwinism and Conservation in the Galapagos Islands pp 41–63Cite as

Darwinians, Anti-Darwinians, and the Galapagos (1835–1935)

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Abstract

From 1835 to 1935, the Galapagos peculiar geology and life inspired a diversity of theories. To some like Charles Darwin and Theodor Wolf, the primitive volcanic appearance of the islands pointed out to a new world where species of animals and plants derived from South American ancestors. Others, like Georges Baur, saw the prehistoric landscape and inhabitants of the Galapagos to be remnants of life from another era that survived without the depredation of carnivorous animals, especially man. The proposed mechanisms of transmutation were also varied. Some followed Darwin and Alfred Wallace’s idea of natural selection, while others talked more of plasticity of the young somewhat like Lamarck. And there were those to whom the Galapagos prehistoric-looking saurians were proof that species didn’t vary over time. Finally, in commemoration of the centennial of Darwin’s visit to the Galapagos, Ecuadorian and International scientists promoted the conservation of the islands mentioning them as the origin of On the Origin of Species.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    “Indian roofed turtle,” today classified as Pangshura tecta according to Gray, 1831.

  2. 2.

    Recently, it has been shown through genetic analysis that the closest relative to the Galapagos tortoise are the much smaller species of Geochelone chilensis, or Chaco tortoise from Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina, one of the largest in South America (Caccone et al. 1999, 2002). The hypothesis is that both Geochelone species derived from a giant South American ancestor now extinct (Parent et al. 2008).

  3. 3.

    What did harmonic mean for Baur? He did not give a definition, but we can interpret that he was talking about the harmony between the animals, the plants, and the natural conditions. For Baur, following Darwin, it takes time for species to accommodate to new natural conditions; this means that the species that came later to the archipelago would still be in a process of “plastic” adaptation. Wolf also mentioned that the “the very scarce and singular vegetation of the islands, with which the no less singular animals are in harmony” (Wolf 1879: 49).

  4. 4.

    This letter is not yet identified in the Darwin Correspondence Project. Moritz Wagner (1813–1887) was a German explorer and naturalist, professor at Munich University, who developed the migration theory of fauna and flora in 1868 with great weight given to geographical isolation in speciation. Darwin corresponded with Wagner and in the 5th edition of the Origin, he cited Wagner’s article stressing that although geographical isolation was important for preventing crosses between new varieties, it was not necessary for the formation of new species (Darwin Correspondence Project, Baur cited Wagner, Moritz. Die Enstehung der Artendurch Frdumliche Son-derung. Basel, 1889).

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  1. Departamento de historia, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Quito, Ecuador

    Elisa Sevilla

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  1. Elisa Sevilla
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  1. Colegio de Ciencias Biológicas y Ambientales y Colegio de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador

    Diego Quiroga

  2. Colegio de Ciencias Sociales y Humanidades, Universidad San Francisco de Quito, Quito, Ecuador

    Ana Sevilla

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Sevilla, E. (2017). Darwinians, Anti-Darwinians, and the Galapagos (1835–1935). In: Quiroga, D., Sevilla, A. (eds) Darwin, Darwinism and Conservation in the Galapagos Islands. Social and Ecological Interactions in the Galapagos Islands. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-34052-4_4

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