Encyclopedia of Evolution.pdf - Online Reading Center

fitness See natural selection.
FitzRoy, Robert (1805–1865) British Naval Officer Robert
FitzRoy was the captain of HMS Beagle, the ship on
which a young Charles Darwin (see Darwin, Charles), only
a few years younger than himself, sailed around the world.
FitzRoy, a staunch believer in the Bible, was very upset to
discover that it was the trip on board his vessel that opened
Darwin’s eyes to the science of evolution.
Born July 5, 1805, FitzRoy attended the Royal Naval
College at Portsmouth, where he studied with distinction. He
held positions of responsibility on two ships. At the age of 23
he was appointed captain of HMS Beagle. The crew of the
Beagle surveyed the coasts and ports of South America. Also
on this voyage, they brought three Fuegian Native Americans
from southern South America to England for religious and
cultural instruction. A second voyage was required, for further
surveying and to take the Fuegians back as missionaries
to their tribe. The second voyage departed England in 1831
with Charles Darwin on board as companion to Captain Fitz-
Roy. FitzRoy and Darwin got along reasonably well most of
the time, but Darwin had a difficult time adjusting to Fitz-
Roy’s explosive temper. The crew referred to their captain as
“Hot Coffee” because he was always boiling over. The Beagle
returned to England in 1836. In 1839 a three-volume narrative
of the Beagle voyages was published; FitzRoy was the
editor, and the author of the first two volumes. Charles Darwin
wrote the third volume, which became a popular book.
FitzRoy’s volumes demonstrated that he was not only an
excellent navigator and surveyor but an observant man of science
as well. In some ways, his scientific technique exceeded
Darwin’s: In his collection of what are now called Darwin’s
finches, FitzRoy indicated which island each finch had come
from, while Darwin did not.
When he returned to England, FitzRoy married and
began a family. He also briefly served in Parliament. In 1843
he was appointed the governor of New Zealand. He was dismissed
from this position in 1846. Some historians say that it
was because of his explosive temper, but others have pointed
out that he treated native Maori land claims as equally valid
to those of the white settlers, which was against the imperialistic
interests of the Crown.
In 1854 FitzRoy was appointed the head of the British
Meteorological Department. He developed some of the meteorological
and forecasting techniques that modern people
take for granted, for example the printing of weather forecasts
in daily newspapers and a system of storm warnings.
FitzRoy also invented a cheap, useful new kind of barometer.
FitzRoy spent much time gathering information that he
believed supported a literalistic interpretation of the Bible.
He was present at the famous Oxford debate that included
an exchange between Huxley (see Huxley, Thomas Henry)
and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. FitzRoy walked around waving
a Bible in the air, proclaiming, “The Book! The Book!”
Suicides had occurred in FitzRoy’s family, and it is possible
that he had an inherited mental instability that finally
overcame him. He shot himself on April 30, 1865.
Flores Island people
Further Reading
Nichols, Peter. Evolution’s Captain: The Dark Fate of the Man Who
Sailed Charles Darwin Around the World. New York: HarperCollins,
2003.
Flores Island people A dwarf species of early humans
(Homo floresiensis) may have evolved in isolation on Flores
Island in Indonesia less than 30,000 years ago. A team led by
anthropologist Michael Morwood discovered a largely complete
adult female skeleton and fragments of as many as seven
others in a limestone cave in 2003 (see photo on page 164).
For more than a century scientists have known that early
humans known as Java man lived in Indonesia (see Dubois,
Eugène; Homo erectus). These early humans, dating back
to almost a million years ago, have been considered the same
species as Peking man in northeast Asia. They are considered
to be descendants of an African hominin species, perhaps
Homo ergaster, that dispersed into Asia. Once in Asia,
these hominins evolved some distinctive skeletal features,
perhaps slightly larger brains, but experienced a regression
in tool-making abilities, from the Acheulean phase of H.
ergaster back to the Oldowan phase characteristic of Homo
Habilis (see technology). Some radiometric dates (see
radiometric dating) suggested that H. erectus might have
persisted until as recently as 26,000 years ago. By that time,
modern H. sapiens had arrived in a separate wave of migration
from Africa and undoubtedly saw the smaller-brained,
shorter humans who were already there. Like H. ergaster, H.
erectus used fire. H. erectus must have known how to make
rafts, because even when ocean levels were at their lowest
(during each of the ice ages), there were several miles of
ocean to cross to reach the various islands on which H. erectus
lived. This included Flores Island.
Scientists had studied what they assumed were H. erectus
specimens on Flores Island. Like other H. erectus populations,
these people made stone tools and used fire. Strangely,
the tools seemed to be what one researcher described as “toysized”
versions of typical H. erectus tools. The one puzzling
aspect was that they seemed to find only the skeletons of
children, about a meter in height. Since it was unlikely that
Flores Island was a prehistoric Boy Scout camp, where were
the adults? The newly discovered skull, with a cranial capacity
of about 25 cubic inches (400 cc), was assumed to be that
of a child.
Then someone took a close look at the teeth and the
joints between the skull bones. The degree of wear upon the
teeth could only have been produced by decades of use, and
the cranial bones were fused like those of an adult. Estimating
age from tooth wear is standard procedure for all hominin
species. Therefore the researchers concluded that the Flores
Island hominins were a species of dwarf hominins. Presumably,
H. erectus individuals colonized Flores Island, lost either
the ability or desire to reconnect with other populations, and
over many generations evolved into a miniature form, now
called Homo floresiensis.
The reason that this was big news among evolutionary
scientists (and made headlines around the world) was that