Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
BOX 15.1
ADAPTATION AND DESIGN
The problem of adaptation is to explain the empirical fact that organisms appear
designed. William Paley (1802) provided a particularly clear illustration of this
problem in his topic
Natural Theology
, discussing traits that ranged from the sting
of a bee, marsupial pouch and stomach of a camel to the tongue of a woodpecker.
Considering the eye, he marvelled at how the pupil and lens can be manipulated,
so as to allow for variation in the level of light, or the distance to an object being
viewed, and the superiority of the eye over the telescopes of the time. He then
used what we would now call the comparative approach, to consider variation in
(b)
(a)
(c)
(d)
The development of adaptationism. (a) William Paley (1743-1805) formulated the
problem of adaptation as the need to explain the apparent design of organisms.
Photo © National Portrait Gallery. (b) Charles Darwin (1809-1882) solved the problem of
adaptation with the theory of Natural Selection. (c) R.A. Fisher (1890-1962) showed how
natural selection could be described by changes in gene frequencies. Photo © National
Portrait Gallery. (d) Bill Hamilton (1936-2000) showed that the fitness which natural
selection would lead to organisms maximizing is inclusive fitness. Image courtesy of the
family of W.D. Hamilton.
