Portrait and short biography of Gavin de Beer from the back cover of his 1945 book Escape to Switzerland

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. Image File history File linksMetadata DeBeer45-backcover. ... Image File history File linksMetadata DeBeer45-backcover. ... The Fellowship of the Royal Society was founded in 1660. ... A hypothetical phylogenetic tree of all extant organisms, based on 16S rRNA gene sequence data, showing the evolutionary history of the three domains of life, bacteria, archaea and eukaryotes. ... Embryology is the branch of developmental biology that studies embryos and their development. ... The Natural History Museum in South Kensington, London, has an ornate terracotta facade typical of high Victorian architecture. ... The Linnean Society of London is the worlds premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy. ...

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]. New Malden is a leafy suburban town and shopping centre partly in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames and partly in the London Borough of Merton, and is situated 9. ... Surrey is a county in southern England, part of the South East England region and one of the Home Counties. ... London is the capital city of England and of the United Kingdom, and is the most populous city in the European Union. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur Tossed by the waves, she does not founder Coordinates : , Time Zone : CET (GMT +1) Administration Subdivisions 20 arrondissements Département Paris (75) Région ÃŽle-de-France Mayor Bertrand Delanoë (PS) City (commune) Characteristics Land Area 86. ... Harrow School, normally just known as Harrow, is a prestigious and internationally known independent school for boys, located on Harrow on the Hill in North West London. ... College name Magdalen College Named after Mary Magdalene Established 1458 Sister College Magdalene College President Professor David Clary FRS JCR President Iain Anstess Undergraduates 395 Graduates 230 Homepage Boatclub Magdalen College (pronounced ) is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... The University of Oxford (often called Oxford University), located in the city of Oxford, England, is the oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Zoology is the biological discipline which involves the study of animals. ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria Germany Ottoman Empire Casualties Military dead: 5 million Military dead: 4 million The First World War, also known as The Great War, The War to End All Wars, and World War I (abbreviated WWI) was... The Grenadier Guards is the most senior regiment of the Guards Division of the British Army, and, as such, is the most senior regiment of infantry. ... College name The House of Scholars of Merton Named after Walter de Merton Established 1264 Sister College Peterhouse Warden Prof. ... In the United Kingdom academic hierarchy, reader is the rank between senior lecturer (or principal lecturer in the New Universities) and professor. ... University College London, commonly known as UCL, is one of the colleges that make up the University of London. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, France/Free France, United States, China, Canada, India, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Greece,Norway and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, Bulgaria, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Burma, Slovakia Casualties Military dead: 17 million Civilian dead: 33 million Total dead: 50 million Military dead... Military intelligence (abbreviated MI, int. ... It has been suggested that Propaganda in the United States be merged into this article or section. ... The U.S. Department of Defense defines psychological warfare (PSYWAR) as: The planned use of propaganda and other psychological actions having the primary purpose of influencing the opinions, emotions, attitudes, and behavior of hostile foreign groups in such a way as to support the achievement of national objectives. ...

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. A professor giving a lecture The meaning of the word professor (Latin: one who claims publicly to be an expert) varies. ... The Linnean Society of London is the worlds premier society for the study and dissemination of taxonomy. ... The Natural History Museum from the south east The Natural History Museum, one of three large museums on Exhibition Road, Kensington, London (the others are the Science Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum), is home to life and earth science collections comprising some 70 million items. ... The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ...

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. In his lifetime, Charles Darwin gained international fame as an influential scientist examining controversial topics. ... Alfriston is a village and civil parish in the East Sussex district of Wealden, on the River Cuckmere, about four miles north-east of Seaford. ... Sussex is a traditional county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. ...

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. J.B.S. Haldane with his second wife Helen Spurway John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (November 5, 1892 – December 1, 1964), who normally used J.B.S. as a first name, was a British geneticist and evolutionary biologist. ... Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, FRS (June 22, 1887 – February 14, 1975) was a British biologist, author, Humanist and internationalist, known for his popularisations of science in books and lectures. ... The modern evolutionary synthesis (often referred to simply as the modern synthesis or the evolutionary synthesis), neo-Darwinian synthesis or neo-Darwinism, generally denotes the combination of Charles Darwins theory of the evolution of species by natural selection, Gregor Mendels theory of genetics as the basis for biological... Population genetics is the study of the distribution of and change in allele frequencies under the influence of the four evolutionary forces: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation, and migration. ...

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. In biology, heterochrony is defined as a developmental change in the timing of events, leading to changes in size and shape. ... Paedomorphosis is a biological term describing the retention of ancestral infantile or juvenile traits in an adult organism. ... Ever since recorded history began, and probably before, people have found pieces of rock and other hard material with indentations from the remains of dead organisms. ... Phyletic gradualism is a macroevolutionary hypothesis rooted in uniformitarianism. ... Neoteny describes a process by which paedomorphism is achieved, and is a subject studied in the field of developmental biology. ... Sexual maturity is the stage at which an organism can reproduce. ...

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. Paleornithology is the scientific study of bird evolution and fossil birds. ... Please wikify (format) this article as suggested in the Guide to layout and the Manual of Style. ... Binomial name Archaeopteryx lithographica Meyer, 1861 Archaeopteryx (pronounced ) meaning ancient wing (Greek archaio = ancient + pteryx = wing), from the Late Jurassic of Germany, is the earliest and most primitive known bird. ... Ernst Haeckel Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (February 16, 1834 - August 8, 1919) was a German biologist and philosopher who popularized Charles Darwins work in Germany. ... Families Struthionidae Casuariidae Dinornithidae Apterygidae Rheidae A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanian origin, most of them now extinct. ... This article is not about the magazine, Popular Science Popular science is interpretation of science intended for a general audience, rather than for other scientists or students. ... The Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science is an award given by UNESCO for presenting scientific ideas to the lay masses. ... UNESCO logo UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945. ...

In addition to his scientific works, de Beer also wrote a series of books about Switzerland and the Alps. The West face of the Petit Dru above the Chamonix valley near the Mer de Glace. ...

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

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley, FRS (June 22, 1887 – February 14, 1975) was a British biologist, author, Humanist and internationalist, known for his popularisations of science in books and lectures. ...

Quote

• Each ontogeny is a fresh creation to which the ancestors contribute only the internal factors by means of heredity.

References

1. ^ Lists of Royal Society Fellows 1660-2004. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.
2. ^ The History of Science and Technology 1801-1914. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.
3. ^ 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]
4. ^ Evowiki: Gavin de Beer. Retrieved on April 3, 2006.