SCIENTISTS (EVOLUTION)

• Scala Naturae


  • Aristotle (384BC-322BC): Species are fixed and arranged on a scala naturae, consistent with the Old Testament
• John Ray (1627 - 1705)


  • First scientist to carry out a thorough study of the natural world, early classification of plant system based on physiology and anatomy, modern concept of a species, recognized fossils as having formed from once-living organisms, rejected any possibility of an old and changing Earth
• Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778)


  • Founder of Taxonomy, devised classification system based on morphology, binomial nomenclature naming system, ascribed the resemblance among species to the pattern of creation rather than evolution
• Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 - 1788)


  • Frenchman who wrote "Natural History," considered similarities of humans and apes, debated over the age of the Earth, gave consideration to the concept of evolution
• Erasmus Darwin (1731 - 1802)


  • Published "The Loves of the Plants" and "Zoonomia," believed in the original creation of life but also in evolution from a common ancestor
• Georges Cuvier (1769 - 1832)


  • Contributed to Paleontology, classified animals according to their body plan, associated groups of fossil organisms with certain rock strata
• Catastrophism Model Of Earth’s History


  • Large numbers of species became extinct, gaps in the fossil succession as mass extinction events, each boundary between strata represents a catastrophe, concept of catastrophism states that natural history has been punctuated by catastrophic events
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 - 1829)


  • Proposed the inheritance of acquired characteristics, believed in the evolution of species into another form
• Life had existed unchanged on earth for hundreds of thousands of years, ever since the creation
• Lamarck's Concepts of Evolution and Inheritance


  • Individuals pass characteristics acquired during their own lifetimes to their offspring
  • Species evolve into another form instead of going extinct
  • Evolution produces more complex organisms from simple ancestors over time
• Law of use and disuse


  When certain organs become specially developed due to environmental needs, that state of development is hereditary and can be passed on to progeny
• James Hutton and the Principle of Uniformitarianism


  • Understanding geological processes that shaped the Earth
  • Recognizing the Earth's old age
  • Developing the Theory of Gradualism in geology
  • Species appearing through gradual transformation of ancestral species into new species by accumulation of micro-evolutionary changes
• Charles Lyell


  • Supporting evidence for uniformitarianism
  • Belief in gradual long-term natural changes as the shaping force of the Earth's surface
  • Belief in special creation of all existing species and extinction and replacement of many species
• Thomas Malthus wrote "On Population" proposing that human populations can grow faster than available resources leading to disease and famine controlling population size
• Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection


  • Extensive fossil collections showing fossils found in regions now occupied by slightly different descendants
  • Observations on form and distribution of species leading to the theory of evolution by natural selection
  • Tying concepts from Lyell, Lamarck, and Malthus
• Galapagos Tortoises


  • Adapted to different habitats as they spread from the mainland to different islands
  • Illustrating divergent evolution and adaptive radiation
• Alfred Russel Wallace, influenced by Malthus, proposed that the best-adapted organisms in a population survive to breed, passing on their adaptations to offspring
• Alfred Russel Wallace's letter pushed Darwin into publication of "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection" in 1859