Gavin de Beer
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Sir Gavin Rylands de Beer FRS (1899–1972) was a British evolutionary embryologist, director of the British Museum (Natural History) and president of the Linnean Society.
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[edit] Biography
Born on November 1, 1899 in Malden, Surrey (now part of London), de Beer spent most of his childhood in France, where he was educated at the Parisian École Pascal. During this time, he also visited Switzerland, a country with which he remained fascinated for the rest of his life. His education continued at Harrow and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he graduated with a degree in zoology in 1921, after a pause to serve in the First World War in the Grenadier Guards and the Army Education Scheme. He soon became a fellow of Merton College and began to teach at the university's zoology department. In 1938, he was made reader in embryology at University College, London, and served in the Second World War in intelligence, propaganda and psychological warfare. Also during the war, in 1940, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society [1].
In 1945, de Beer became professor of zoology and was, from 1946 to 1949, president of the Linnean Society. This was followed by his directorship of the British Museum (Natural History) (now the Natural History Museum), from 1950 until his retirement in 1960. He was knighted in 1954.
After his retirement, de Beer moved to Switzerland and worked on several publications on Charles Darwin [2] and his own seminal Atlas of Evolution. He returned to England in 1971 and died at Alfriston, Sussex on June 21, 1972.
[edit] Work
De Beer's early work at Oxford was strongly influenced by J. B. S. Haldane and Edwin S. Goodrich (one of de Beer's teachers). This work concerned experimental embryology, and some of it was co-written with Julian Huxley, who would go on to be one of the leading figures of the modern synthesis. However, while Huxley went on to include aspects of population genetics in his work, de Beer turned to comparative embryology and evolutionary embryology.
Much of de Beer's work stressed the importance of heterochrony [3], and especially paedomorphosis in evolution. According to his theories, paedomoprhosis (the retention of juveline features in the adult form) is more important in evolution that gerontomorphosis, since juvenile tissues are relatively undifferentiated and capable of further evolution, whereas highyl specialised tissues are less able to change. He also conceived the idea of clandestine evolution, which helped to explain the sudden changes in the fossil record which were so at odds with Darwin's gradualist theory of evolution. If a novelty were to evolve gradually in an animal's juvenile form, then its development would not appear in the fossil record at all, but if the species were then to undergo neoteny (a form of paedomorphosis in which sexual maturity is reached while in an otherwise juvenile form), then the feature would appear suddenly in the fossil record, despite having evolved gradually.
De Beer worked on paleornithology and general evolutionary theory, and was largely responsible for elucidating the concept of mosaic evolution, as illustrated by his review of the Archaeopteryx family in 1954. De Beer's work also included a review of Haeckel's concept of heterochrony, with particular emphasis on its role in avian evolution, especially that of the ratites, in 1956 [4]. Dedicated to the popularisation of science, he received the Kalinga Prize from UNESCO.
In addition to his scientific works, de Beer also wrote a series of books about Switzerland and the Alps.
[edit] Books by Gavin de Beer
- Growth — 1924
- An introduction to experimental embryology — 1926
- The comparative anatomy, histology and development of the pituitary body — 1926
- Vertebrate zoology — 1928
- Early travellers in the Alps — 1930
- Embryology and evolution — 1930 (later editions bore the title Embryos and ancestors)
- Alps and men — 1933
- The elements of experimental embryology — 1934 (co-written with Julian Huxley)
- The development of the vertebrate skull — 1937
- Escape to Switzerland — 1945
- Alps and elephants. Hannibal's march — 1955
- The first ascent of Mont Blanc — 1957
- Darwin's journal — 1959
- Charles Darwin: evolution by natural selection — 1963
- Atlas of evolution — 1964
- Homology, an unsolved problem — 1971
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his world — 1972
[edit] Quote
- Each ontogeny is a fresh creation to which the ancestors contribute only the internal factors by means of heredity.
[edit] References
- ^ Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660-2004. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.
- ^ The History of Science and Technology 1801-1914. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.
- ^ Brigandt, I. (2006) Homology and heterochrony: the evolutionary embryologist Gavin Rylands de Beer (1899-1972). Journal of Experimental Zoology (Molecular and Developmental Evolution) 306B:317-328. [preprint]
- ^ Evowiki: Gavin de Beer. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.
