Sleepy History - Evolution

Episode Date: July 19, 2026

✨Sleepy History is written and narrated by humans. ✨ Narrated By: Simon Mattacks Written By: Jacob Duarte Spiel Trace the theory of evolution through the ages, from Islamic biologists and Taoist thinkers to Charles Darwin and modern DNA research. Allow Simon's steady voice to lull you to sleep through the fascinating discoveries that have given us a better understanding of our existence. Includes mentions of: Science & Nature, Experimentation, Literature & Literary History, Evolution. #History #Sleep #evolution #science #DNA #experiments #Darwin About Sleepy History Explore history's most intriguing stories, people, places, events, and mysteries, delivered in a supremely calming atmosphere. If you struggle to fall asleep and you have a curious mind, Sleepy History is the perfect bedtime companion. Our stories will gently grasp your attention, pulling your mind away from any racing thoughts, making room for the soothing music and calming narration to guide you into a peaceful sleep. Want to enjoy Sleepy History ad-free? Start your 7-day free trial of Sleepy History Premium: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://sleepyhistory.supercast.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Have feedback or an episode request? Let us know at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠slumberstudios.com/contact⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Sleepy History is a production of Slumber Studios. To learn more, visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠www.slumberstudios.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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your gambling or someone close to you, please contact connects Ontario at 1-866-531-2,600 to speak to an advisor, free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming, Ontario. The theory of evolution is undoubtedly one of the most important scientific advances. in history. First fully described by Charles Darwin, evolution has shed light on pretty much every aspect of biology. But evolution wasn't always a part of the scientific consensus. Before Darwin, there were dozens of others who presented different theories for why animals and plants are the way they are. Tonight, we're going to look at some of those pre-evolutionary theories, and then learn how to learn how to be

Darwin's theory came to be. We'll also learn about some of the key figures who help Darwin on his biological journeys. So just relax and let your mind drift as we explore the sleepy history of evolution. The story of evolution never ends. Every day, animals and plants struggle for resources and survival. Those that succeed will have a chance to to pass on their particular set of genes and any mutations those genes might have to the next generation. Over the course of thousands of generations, this process of inheriting genes and mutations and then competing for survival will cause these plants and animals to slowly change. This is known as natural selection.

If evolution is a story, then natural selection is the paper the story is written on. It's essential to the process, the foundation. But humans weren't always aware of natural selection. Before Charles Darwin and his contemporaries, there were many, many other theories for how and why organisms were different from each other. If you think about it, it's really quite an important thing to consider. Why are dogs, dogs and not cats or horses or crocodiles? Why is the world the way it is? Why are we the way we are?

Humans have been thinking about these questions since the beginning of recorded time. We've answered them hundreds of times in every way imaginable. We've used myth, religion, storytelling. philosophy, art, psychology, science and more. Some of these answers were right, some were wrong, and some were neither. And perhaps questions this big need multiple answers. The theory of evolution is just one of those answers, one that's mainly interested in the science behind why things are the way they are. But before we jump ahead, let's look at how humans have harnessed natural selection for our own purposes. The term natural selection isn't an accident. Darwin chose

the word natural to differentiate from another process, artificial selection. Humans have been using artificial selection for tens of thousands of years, if not longer. All the plants and animals we've domesticated are the result of some amount of artificial selection. Basically, artificial selection is the act of choosing individuals with preferred traits and intentionally breeding them to produce more desirable offspring. You may know artificial selection by another term. Selective breeding. When wolves began hanging around ancient human camps in Eurasia, we welcomed the gentlest and most loyal ones, keeping the more aggressive and unpredictable wolves away. Over thousands of years, these gentle and loyal wolves

became the dogs we know today. Similarly, when ancient humans in the eastern Mediterranean discovered the wild cabbage, also known as Brasica on Eurasia, we saw an opportunity to selectively breed the plant to increase the size of different traits. Wild cabbage proved to be very flexible. You can now buy wild cabbage in the form of kale, coli, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, Gailan and collared greens.

All of these edible plants were derived from the artificial selection of wild cabbage. It's likely a sizable portion of the vegetable aisle at your local food store. Artificial selection goes well beyond these two examples. Cows and chickens and goats have all been artificially selected by humans. Nearly every plant we eat regularly has experienced some form of artificial selection as well, from the dozens of different varieties of apple to various forms of wheat, to every type of citrus fruit. But despite our familiarity and dependence on artificial selection,

it took a long time to expand those ideas to encompass nature as a whole. So even while early humans were using evolution to improve their crops and make friends with walls, natural selection wasn't on the radar. In the meantime, we were looking for other theories to understand how and why plants and animals exist in the way they do. Let's look at how other eras and cultures once approached solving this seemingly unsolvable mystery. We'll start with a

category of explanations. Myths, legends and religion. For thousands of years, and even today, humans have used stories to help understand our world and organize our societies. One of the big questions these stories often needed to answer was, where did all of this come from? The story of creation has been told across societies in countless ways. These myths contain powerful ideas, often setting the groundwork for an entire philosophy, of life and morality. Creation stories also provide some knowledge of biology to the people who believe them.

For example, if a creation myth features animals and plants that have unchanging forms, then it would be hard to imagine that the society could believe in a form of evolution. Some creation myths keep humans in a separate category from other animals, while others include humans and other animals as part of the same big group. Some creation myths treat certain animals as inherently bad or evil, perhaps even a representation of some kind of bigger cosmic evil like the devil. You can see how these different stories could influence how different cultures approach nature as a whole. A good example are the Malagasy people of Madagascar.

Madagascar is an island and has been separated from the mainland for millions of years. The animals there have evolved in isolation from the outside world, which is why Madagascar has so many unique and unusual species. Lemas are a great example. Lemas are ancient primates who diverged from other primates around 50 or 60 million years ago. There are currently around 100 different lemur species. When the Malagasy arrived on Madagascar about 2,000 years ago, they encountered lemurs for the first time and incorporated one specific lemur species into

their mythology. This type of lemur is known as the Babacoto or Injury. It's one of the largest living lemas. It has front-facing eyes, fluffy ears, and if you squint, it kind of has human proportions. They are even known to sit cross-legged in the sun to warm themselves. The Malagasy certainly thought the Babacoto looked human. So much so that they believe that the Babacoto and humans used to be brothers and sisters. The Babacoto became sacred, not to be hunted or harmed in any way. This story is not really natural selection, but it does describe two species diverging. In a sense, the Malagasy were correct.

If you go back 60 million years, you'll find the common ancestor for humans and lemurs. Back then, we were brothers and sisters. Over time, cultures began to develop science and philosophy that ran alongside their religious and spiritual beliefs. By looking at different scientific and philosophical outlooks, we can see how these cultures tried to use reasons. to understand the natural world. Some of them saw the beginnings of what would later become natural selection. Ayurveda is a scientific system developed in ancient India around 3,500 years ago.

While Ayurveda is generally concerned with medicine, it also contains an early attempt at classifying the living things on Earth. earth. Ayavadic writers used four categories that were based on the method of birth, eggs, heat and moisture, and seeds. This may not sound relevant to evolution, but this shows that people have been interested in categorizing living things since the beginning of civilization. It's a preview of the complex trees of life that will begin to take shape in the 1700s. Twang Zhu, a philosopher in the 4th century BC, who was one of the fathers of Taoism, expressed ideas that were related to evolution.

He speculated that species developed their differing attributes in response to different environments. He also denied the idea that species were fixed. This is a particularly interesting example because of what Taoism says about the world. Taoism has influenced many religions and philosophies, but the basic idea is that there is a process of constant transformation that underlies and organizes all reality. Many Taoists say,

emphasize that living in harmony with that process is the path to a good life. When this outlook is applied to the natural world, it makes sense that Taoist philosophers began to suspect that animals changed to match their environments just like humans do. That would be a way of living in harmony with the Tao. Let's move to ancient Greece now. Several pre-Socratic Greek philosophers suggested that some animals, including humans, may have descended from other types of animals. Anaximanda of Miletus said that the first animals lived in water

during a particularly wet period in Earth's past and advanced the idea that maybe humanity came from the sea in the distant past Because of this, some people called Anaximander the first Darwinist. He was certainly one of the first recorded people to believe in what we would call science. However, after Socrates, Greek philosophers tended to be more fixed in their beliefs about nature. Plato developed the idea of essentialism, also known as the theory of forms. which stated that every object in the world was an imperfect version of an ideal form that existed outside of reality. Specifically, Plato put forward the idea that the creator of the universe created more than just all the animals and plants on Earth.

They also created all potential forms of life, even ones that, don't currently exist. This idea functions as a sort of anti-evolution theory. It assumes that nothing truly evolves because its form already exists. Aristotle, Plato's student, had a different approach. He still rejected the idea that living creatures might have originated by chance, but he also did actual research into plants and animals on the Greek island of Lesbos. He developed a hierarchical understanding of organisms, placing species either higher or lower on a scale based on how much vitality and movement they showed. Importantly, Aristotle noted that living organisms seemed to have a final cause or purpose.

and that their form suited their function. While he never got close to the ideas that underlie evolution, Aristotle's interest in observing plants and animals is key. He was trying to understand more about the natural world, and he did so by trying to see what made plants and animals different from each other. Things really started to pick up in the Middle Ages. During the Islamic Golden Age, from the 8th century to the 13th century, many philosophers took up the research of the natural world.

It's here that we begin to see some people start to grasp the initial ideas that will later become the theory of evolution. The scholar, Al Jahis, wrote The Book of Animals in the 9th century. In this work, he describes, food chains and notes that animals struggle for existence through competition with each other. Specifically, the strong tend to eat the weak. But this idea of the struggle for existence wasn't only about competition between animals. It was also about how the environment impacted different creatures in different ways.

This impact could be positive or negative. and had a large influence on whether an animal could survive. This insight is one of the keys to natural selection. Later, in the late 1300s, the historian and philosopher Ibn Khaldun may have come the closest to describing evolution as we know it today. In his work, the Mogadima, Ibn Khaldun writes, This world with all the created things in it has a certain order and solid construction. It shows nexus between causes and things caused,

combinations of some parts of creation with others, and transformations of some existent things into others, in a pattern that is both remarkable and endless. Ibn Chaldun goes on to describe the relationships between man and monkeys, and how humans developed from apes through a process that is responsible for making species more numerous. This is much closer than Aristotle ever got. It's also interesting to note how similar Ibn Khaldun's concepts are to the fundamental ideas of Taoism. As the Islamic Golden Age wound down, scientific advances in biology,

became more centralized in what we now call Europe. From the early 18th century onward, discoveries and theories came fast and furious in the biological and geological disciplines. Here are a few of the key players and what they brought to the table. George Cuvier was a naturalist and zoologist whom some people call the founding father of paleontology.

In 1796, Cuvier published an analysis of modern elephant bones, as compared to ancient elephants from the fossil record. This work resulted in the identification of mammoths and mastodons as separate species from elephants the first time anyone had distinguished the three animals. This may not seem like a big deal. But at the time there was a long-running debate over whether extinction of a species was even possible. Cuvier effectively answered this question, and thus laid an important paving stone on the road to natural selection. But Cuvier wasn't done yet.

In 1811, he and Alexander Bruniar, another early paleontologist, published a study of rock layers in the region around Paris. This research helped to establish the age of the earth. Determining the age of the earth was essential for natural selection to make sense. After all, natural selection takes an extreme. long time. A young Earth would make it impossible. However, Cuvier argued that the extinctions he saw in the fossil record was best explained by catastrophism. Catastrophism is the idea that the Earth has mostly been shaped by big, violent geological events that happen suddenly and only last a short while. This would turn out to be mostly incorrect.

Charles Lyle, a Scottish geologist, published an influential multi-volume book entitled Principles of Geology. In this book, he defended an alternate theory to catastrophism known as Uniformitarianism. Rather than the world being shaped by a supernatural creator, the uniformitarianism sees the geological features of the earth as being the result of a gradual change over millions of years. This insight had originally been made by James Hutton and built upon by other geologists. This is another essential piece of the natural selection puzzle. If change on earth is gradual, then what Cuvier perceived and what Cuvier perceived as a

as catastrophic extinctions in the fossil record, could simply be the remains of species that have diverged and evolved to look different in the modern era. It's also worth noting that Charles Lyle played a major role in helping Charles Darwin publish his work on natural selection. Perhaps no person has had a greater influence on scientific language than Carl Linnaeus. Linnaeus was an 18th century biologist

who devised the taxonomical system of plant and animal classification that we still use today. In fact, whenever someone says, Homo sapien or Tyrannosaurus or rhododendron, that's because of Carl Linnaeus. In creating this system, the Neus played a major role

in distinguishing one species from another and starting to build the tree of life. In 1735, Enaas published the first edition of Sistema Naturae. It was only 12 pages long. Then, in 1758, he published the 10th edition. This version contained more than 4,000 animals and 6,000 plants. People from all over the world sent Linnaeus, plants and animals so that he could categorize

them and include them in this work. It was the beginning of zoological nomenclature. Importantly, Linnaeus was also one of the first scientists to classify human beings as primates. This caused a fair amount of controversy, since most people viewed humans as outside of nature. We ruled over animals, which meant we couldn't also be animals. Jean-Baptiste LeMarc was an important voice in biology in the 19th century. Ironically, he explicitly rejected the idea of natural selection, but his acceptance of gradual change in animals was foundational. The mark believed that simple forms,

of life arose spontaneously and that species did not have a common ancestor. However, he also recognized that animals and plants naturally adapted to be better suited to their environments and that these adaptations could be passed on to offspring. We just believed that these adaptations were the result of intentional action, like how you can get bigger muscles by working out. In LaMarque's view, a horse that lived in an environment with tall trees would, over generations, work to develop a longer neck. This idea would become known as La Marquism and would stick around even until the 20th

century, often used by people who rejected the theory of natural selection. We can't move on to Darwin without including a mention of Alfred Russell Wallace. Wallace will show up later as Darwin's co-presenter of Natural Selection, but he's often overshadowed by Darwin because of the enormous impact of Darwin's books. In reality, Wallace and Darwin were developing the theory of natural selection at the same time in completely different places in the world. When the two men became aware of each other's work, they decided not to compete and became friends and colleagues instead, working together to jointly present their theory to the world. Now let's talk about Darwin. Charles Darwin was one of the

most important naturalists, geologists and biologists in human history. But before all of that, he was a child. He was born in England in 1809 as the fifth of six siblings, living in the luxurious home of his wealthy father, a high-society doctor named Robert Darwin. His mother was Susanna Darwin, who was a member of the also very wealthy Wedgwood Pottery family. Wedgwood Pottery is still highly sought out.

Interestingly, both of Darwin's grandfathers were known for their firm public stance on the abolition of slavery. While the theory of evolution isn't explicitly anti-slavery, you can kind of see how believing that all humans are worthy of freedom could open someone up to the idea that all humans are the same species. So, little Charles Darwin was raised in a very very very important. wealthy household. You might expect this to spoil a child's interest in the outside world, or desire to do hard work. Maybe it was his family's investment in human rights, or the multiple doctors on his father's side, but Charles Darwin seemed interested in forging a path for himself. It wasn't always easy, of course. He originally wanted to be a doctor, and when he was 16,

he worked with his father as an apprentice, treating impoverished people for a summer, before attending the University of Edinburgh Medical School. Unfortunately, Charles found the lectures boring and hated conducting surgery, so he neglected his studies. Interestingly, during his time at school, he learned taxidermy from John Edmondston, a black British man from South America who had been freed from slavery a couple of years prior. Edmondston had learned how to do taxidermy in extremely warm and humid climates, where specimens degrade more quickly. It's likely that the skills he taught Charles were critically useful when he later,

collected specimens of birds in the Galapagos. It's possible that Darwin's finches would not have been preserved without Edmonston's instruction. Darwin's father eventually got fed up with how Charles was ignoring his medical studies and decided to pull him from medical school. Instead, he sent Charles to Christ's College, Cambridge in 1828, so that he could begin his theological studies and become an Anglican part. However, it turned out that Darwin wasn't qualified for the necessary exams and was relegated to a different degree.

While at the college, Darwin met his second cousin, William Fox. Fox showed Darwin his butterfly collection and eventually got Darwin into the study of insects. Darwin took up beetle collecting and actually had some of his findings published. in British entomology journals. By the time Darwin graduated, he had expanded his interest in insects into an interest in nature, naturalism, and geology as a whole.

More than that, he had a burning desire to contribute his own discoveries and observations to the field of natural philosophy. He planned a post-graduation trip to the Canary Islands with some of his fellow classmates. There, they could observe new species and continue their study of natural history. Instead, Darwin would end up circling the globe on a five-year journey. After graduating, Darwin received a letter from a friend, suggesting that he would be a good

candidate for a place on the HMS Beagle. The Beagle was a former military vessel built for the Royal Navy. However, there was no immediate need for it in any wars. So, the vessel sat in storage for a few years, before being sent on its first voyage to do hydrographic surveys in the south of Argentina for the British government. When the vessel returned to Britain, the captain, Robert Fitzroy, was looking forward to returning to Argentina,

believing there was more surveying work to be done. The British government agreed and prepared to relaunch the vessel. This time, Fitzroy decided he could use a naturalist on board, and he asked around to see who was available. Darwin answered the call. Darwin's father wasn't a fan of this idea. Charles would only have four weeks to prepare, and the journey would be two entire years.

Nevertheless, Darwin found a way to make it work. His brother-in-law agreed to foot Darwin's bill and, after a brief delay for repairs, the ship left port two days after Christmas. Darwin spent the majority of his time on the Beagle investigating the geology of various places and collecting specimens. He kept careful notes and a personal journal, which was a very general. later published in a popular volume titled The Voyage of the Beagle. Darwin was skilled in beetles and marine invertebrates, but he didn't know much about other animals or their classifications.

His collected specimens were meant for other experts to learn from. Darwin traveled from Brazil to Argentina to Chile to the Galapagos and beyond. In each place he made made more and more observations. Seashells in the heights of the Andes Mountains. Birds with slightly differing beaks in the Galapagos. Armour fragments from a giant, extinct, armadillo-like creature in Patagonia. These observations began to slowly coalesce in Darwin's mind. Much of what Darwin was thinking about is recorded in his.

journals. In 1836, the Beagle finished circumnavigating the world and Darwin returned to England. Two years later, spurred by insights from expert biologists in London and his own readings, Darwin first began to describe his theory of natural selection. It took 20 more years of hard work before he felt it was ready to be presented alongside Alfred Russell Wallace. If you can believe it, this initial presentation was not seen as a big deal. It was only a year later when Darwin published on the origin of species that the idea of natural selection truly began to take root. In the 1800s, scientific thought itself was a relatively new idea.

Research methods were still in the process of being developed, and scientists, mostly men, were still learning how to navigate their own egos while pursuing the truth. Even in the 21st century, many scientists are still learning how to balance their desire to understand the world with their desire to describe something that makes them rich and famous. Darwin's era was filled with scientists who presented their discoveries in self-aggrandizing ways. It sometimes felt like writing a good narrative was as important as the discovery itself. Darwin himself was no exception. Perhaps he knew that his theory would be more welcome if it was packaged in a good story.

Or maybe he simply felt like this was the best way to tell the story of natural selection. Either way, on the origin of species, does not read like a scientific paper. Yes, it's full of scientific evidence and well-structured arguments, but Darwin attempted to write towards the literary taste of the time. Many of his observations of animals are presented in narrative style, which is unusual for serious scientific literature. Some passages could even be described as poetic.

So while the book was absolutely meant for scientists and academics, it was just readable enough for the average educated person to understand it as well. This widened the audience. The result of this stylistic decision was that the book was an immediate bestseller, The first 1,250 copies sold immediately. The second edition was published less than two months later, and also sold out quite quickly, leading to a third edition about a year later. An interesting note, the word evolution never appears in the first five editions of the book.

The word evolved appears only once in these editions. It's actually the final word in the final line. It's also worth noting that Darwin's theory was first published in 1859. At this time, Darwin proposed the idea of heritable traits being the engine for natural selection and speciation. However, the question of how does a heritable trait work was not answered until much later. Shortly after, on the origin of species was published, Gregor Mendel, an Augustinian friar and biologist, began to lay the groundwork for what would become genetic research.

By cross-breeding pea plants, Mendel was able to demonstrate the basic rules of heredity, showing that certain traits were either dominant or recessive. He believed that invisible fruit. factors were determining whether a trait appeared or did not appear. He was right, but we no longer call them factors, we now call them genes. It took another 100 years for science to understand what a gene actually was. This happened in the mid-1900s when other scientists began investigating DNA. It took time, but eventually DNA became recognized as the source. of heritable traits.

The blueprint of life. Today, evolution and natural selection are viewed as the foundation of biology. Now you know the story of how that came to pass. It's remarkable that Darwin constructed a theory that was so close to reality without even knowing that DNA existed. In the end, Darwin, ancient Taoists, Islamic biologists and their fellow travelers all uncovered pieces of the full truth. They didn't do it by making assumptions. They didn't do it by trying to put the world into a box. They did it by slowly,

carefully building from their observations. There's something to be said for what we can learn by opening our eyes to the world and allowing ourselves to be taken in by its majesty and wonder. It's a humbling experience, but one that's filled with wisdom. It turns out you can learn a lot just by looking.