Charles Darwin. A history of Coevolution

In the previous entry, I was embracing a definition of coevolution. Based on this, I will now present a story about this type of evolutionary process and as protagonist we will have Mr. Charles Darwin. 

Darwin, a famous character in the history of science. Naturalist from England, famous for his model of explaining biological diversity. Model exposed in his book called The Origin of Species published in 1859. Book that brought with it, a series of ridicule controversies, confrontations, disputes, among other things. However at present it is undeniable the breadth of the contribution for science its findings and explanations. 

One of them is referred to coevolution, since in his book Darwin an explanation of a process called coadaptation appeared. This is remarkable, when he described a bee being an active agent during pollination of flowering plants. Later, in another of his prestigious books called The Fertilization of Orchids of 1862, the naturalist had a dedication to study this mechanism (pollination) but as indicated by the title of the text, in the orchids by insects. So, in a certain way I began to develop ideas for coevolution, but as was mentioned (in the previous post), it was not who coined the name.

These ideas were not formulated from one day to another so simply, but led a series of observations in the plants. He came to study, about 150 orchids, explaining and detailing with rigor the patterns and mechanisms for fertilization, and the diversity of ways to work with cross-fertilization. In this way, he began to apply the theoretical model proposed in his book (the origin of the species) that he called Natural Selection. From there, applying natural selection he began to formulate hypotheses about how two organisms could evolve at the same time. With a systematic observation, he predicted a reciprocal relationship between orchid plants and certain animals.

Now, Charles Darwin as he is known, had constant contact with other naturalists, lovers of animals, plants, agronomists, farmers, among many others. One of them, I communicate the existence of an orchid in Madagascar, with a very deep corolla, locating the rich nectar at the bottom of it. Then Darwin deduced, there had to be a lepidopteran (for example, butterflies since they are the common pollinating agents of the island) with a mouthparts of the length of the corolla. This supposed, an overwhelming length, double the size with respect to his body. 

As on other occasions, what was proposed by the naturalist caused a stir. One of the reasons was the lack of knowledge of a type of animal with such a long food structure. However, Darwin once again hit the mark and hit. Some animals belonging to the sphingid family called Sphingidae, have a long proboscis that they use to feed themselves. During the flight, it resembles a hummingbird, since it stays "still" in such a way that it can introduce the structure and extract the nectar. 

As has been said, it is well documented that Darwin received not only letters but also animals and plants. The biologist and Fritz Müller, was the one who sent a sphincter, with the structure of the proboscis of the long expected by Darwin and even Mr. Wallace would find a few in Africa. However, it was not until 1903, that they would find the subspecies responsible for pollinating the species Angraecum sesquipedale. With a spirit of about 30cm in length. This species was called Xanthopan morgani praedicta, the 'praedicta' (Latin) means predicted, in honor of Darwin.