Lecture 2

• Great Chain of Being


  Aristotle's classification of life, ranking life on a scale from plant to human
• Aristotle's biology


  • First described his classification of life in History of Animals (~350 BC)
  • Derived from Platonic realism
  • All animals are variants of an idealized "kind" that is uniquely characterized by a set of features
  • Emphasized the Great Chain of Being (scala naturae)
  • Ranked life on a scale from plant to human
  • Adopted by the scholastics in the 12th and 13th centuries
  • Combined ideas of Christianity and Aristotle
  • Key to Western thought until at least the time of Linnaeus
• Stratigraphy


  Study of geological strata (= rock layers)
• Nicolas Steno


  • Danish anatomist who founded stratigraphy
  • Realized that fossils are the remains of organisms
  • Developed his "law of superposition" in 1669
• Georges-Louis Buffon


  • Wrote a highly influential 36-volume encyclopedia (Histoire Naturelle; published 1749–1788)
  • Suggested that the Earth was 75,000–10,000,000 years old
  • Proposed a process of devolution (= "degeneration")
  • Did not believe that new species could arise by degeneration
• Carolus Linnaeus


  • Developed binomial nomenclature
  • Popularized hierarchical taxonomy: Kingdom–Phylum–Class–Order–Family–Genus–Species
• James Hutton


  • Father of modern Geology
  • Originator of gradualism (and uniformitarianism)
  • The present is the key to the past
  • Promoted an ancient earth
• Georges Cuvier


  • Father of Palaeontology and pioneering comparative anatomist
  • Rejected gradualism; promoted catastrophism
  • Provided some of the first compelling evidence for extinction
  • Ardent anti-evolutionist; believed that catastrophes caused extinction, after which new species repopulated the area
• William Smith


  • Father of English Geology
  • Discovered that different layers of rock contained different fossils
  • Created the first detailed, nationwide geological map showing rock strata (1815)
• Watchmaker argument


  Proposed by William Paley for the existence of God
• Jean-Baptiste Lamarck


  • Proposed a theory of evolution based on the law of use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired characteristics
  • Believed that over long periods of time, inheritance of acquired characteristics could lead to new forms
  • Lamarckism was rejected and he died blind and penniless
• Inheritance of acquired characteristics

  Hypothesis that physical changes acquired during an organism's life can be transmitted to its offspring
• Law of use and disuse


  Lamarck's idea that use of an organ leads to its development, while disuse leads to its atrophy
• Lamarck was the first to propose a comprehensive theory of biological evolution based on natural principles
• Lamarck's theory of evolution, known as Lamarckism, was rejected in his time but his legacy lives on