How the Theories of Darwin and Gould Revolutionized the World

Naman Tariq
Cos 50
Professor Isaac
10/5/2011
Reaction Paper
The theories of Darwin and Gould revolutionized the world. People began to think more logical about human origin and the development of human over time. Darwin’s article “The Origin of the Species, The Descent of Man and Stephen Jay Gould’s The Mismeasure of Man provides great example of natural selection, and how the environment and the conditions can change an organism physically and mentally. The movie Dinosaur is a great kid’s movie that both ties the ideas of both these scholars together and in other ways contradicts their theories.
In the book “The Origins of Species, The Descent of Man,” Darwin gives his incite on human variation and evolution. Darwin believed that man is descended from some less highly-organized form. Charles Darwin quotes” I believe that animals are descended from at most only four or five progenitors”(Darwin 217). He believes that all living things have a lot in common and therefore they all came from the same origin. Darwin acknowledged the similarities in the embryonic development between man and the lower animal; along with their “chemical composition, their cellular structure, their laws of growth, and their liability in injurious influences” (Darwin 217); and used it as a solid reason to conclude that at one point in life there weren’t many forms of life and through time began to evolve into newer and different species due to natural selection. Natural selection is a process resulting in the survival of those individuals from a population of animals or plants that are best adapted to the prevailing environmental conditions. Darwin believed that it leads to the improvement of each creature and in some ways makes them more advanced.
In the “Mismeasure of Man,” Stephen Jay Gould proposed that much of the research was based more upon the racial and social prejudices of the researchers than upon their scientific objectivity. Scientist basically made up a conclusion before even starting the experiment. Gould believed that carniometry was a great example of scientific inaccuracy. The basic belief of carniometry was that intelligence was a dominant trait which is “a single, innate, heritable, and measurable thing. There hasn’t been any solid proof that explains that the offspring of a genius will lead to another genius. He believes in the biological variability rather than biological determinism. Gould proposed that if the genetic heritability of intelligence were demonstrable within a given racial or ethnicgroup; That would not explain the different level of intelligence amongst a specific ethnic group; ranking from high to low.
In the movie Dinosaur, a Dinosaur’s egg was founded by a group of Lemurs, who took care of it. After the egg was hatched, they named the Dinosaur Aladar. Aladar was raised by the Lemurs and even though physically he was like all the other dinosaurs, mentally he was like the Lemurs. Then when a meteor shower falls upon the earth, Aladar and his family must move to find a safer place to place in. In this journey they meet up with a huge group of dinosaurs which was led by Kron and Bruton. Aladar thought of helping others when they needed help while all the other dinosaurs believed in the survival of the fittest. Carnivorous predators were on the hunt to eat herbivores and none of the dinosaurs were going to stop to help each other and become the meal of the predators. In this group of Dinosaurs, the strongest of the dinosaur was the leader even though he wasn’t the brightest. After a long journey the dinosaur arrived to the place where they thought would be water. But when they saw nothing Kron decided to keep walking and find water while they were all completely dehydrated. Aladar saves them from dehydration when he and Baylene eventually dig up the trapped water beneath the ground. A characteristic none of the other dinosaur had. Kron sends Bruton to find water upon arrival at the lake returns injured by the carnotaurus. Kron gets his herd to evacuate the area leaving behind anyone that is incapable of traveling any long. Aladar decided to stay behind and help them. They take a different route and end up going to the cave where they eventually get into a confrontation with the Carnotaurus. Aladar had saved an injured dinosaur before who ended up kidding one of the Carnotaurus. Upon reaching a dead end, Aladar begins to lose hope, after repeated failures and the loss of Bruton. His friends all join and try to break down the dead end. Finally they break the wall down and find a livable environment. Aladar tries to find the other dinosaurs to lead them to the right way. Aladar found the the herd and told them that climbing the rock was going to lead to a dead end and they should follow him back. Kron battles him for leadership of the herd. Neera defends Aladar from her brother, and leaves with Aladar and the herd following. The carnotaur tries attacking the herd but this time all the dinosaurs stand together except Kron. Carnotaur gets scared but seizes the opportunity of attacking Kron because he was alone. Kron is killed by the Carnotaur, but a brave Aladar is able to push the predator off a cliff to its death.
I think this movie taught children a great lesson; that even though one may be bigger and stronger, that does not make him the best leader. The survival of the fittest theory does not always help. For example the confrontation that Kron got himself into was because he didn’t want to give up authority even though he was wrong.