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Ancient Greek Philosophies
~400 BCE to ~1749 CE
A few ancient Greek philosophers believed that life evolved gradually, but the two most influential, Plato and Aristotle, said that life was already perfect, and therefore did not change. This view prevailed until the Sixteenth Century. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamark (1)
1744-1829
In his book, Philosophie Zoologique, he wrote his ideas of haw population’s change over time. When comparing current animals and ancient animals, he observed what he called a "Line of Decent", where older fossils led to modern species. He said that species increase in complexity over time, until they reach perfection. He also thought that acquired characteristics, such as large muscles or a tanned skin could be passed on to offspring. He called this Inheritance of Acquired Characterist -
Jean-Baptiste Lamark (2)
This idea of Inherited characteristics was generally accepted due to the act of needing to prove that species were not unchanging, and because there was no cell biology and DNA knowledge at that time. Charles Darwin also accepted hid idea of inherited characteristics as well. -
George-Louis Lecrec Comte de Buffon
1749
In 1749 Buffon published Historie Naturelle, in which he wrote and explained his view of nature. He commented on the Similarities between humans and apes, and mentioned that we might have a common ancestor. He also said that the Earth was probably much, much older than 6000 years, contrary to popular belief. His ideas were the first of their kind in his era, and were probably not well received. -
Thomas Malthus
Malthus, an economist, proposed that all organisms produced more offspring than could possibly survive, and they were killed off by starvation or disease. -
Georges Cuvier
1769-1832
Cuvier is credited with inventing Palaeontology, the study of ancient life through fossils. He found that each layer of rock has its own group of fossils. The lower (older) fossils were more different than today’s species than the higher (younger) layers. He found that certain fossils existed at one time but not later, the first evidence of extinction. To explain this, he said that Earth goes through series of violent and destructive upheavals, which he called revolutions. -
Charles Lyell
1779-1875
Lyell did not agree with Cuvier’s hypotheses of Revolutions. he said in his book , Principles of Geology, that, supposing earths changes were as slow back then as they are today, that earth is well over 6000 years old. When thinking about that, he theorized that slow changes can in the long run make large differences. With that in mind, he wondered if populations might also change like this. He was a main inspiration to Charles Darwin. -
Charles Darwin (1)
(1809-1882)
In 1931, Charles Darwin left on the Beagle on a round the world ride. they spent much time on the western coast of South America and in the Galapagos islands, which is where he found an astounding variety of species, within a few mile from each other, and not found anywhere else in the world. each was adapted to its own little part of the archipelago. He did not understand what any of this meat yet however. -
Charles Darwin (3)
Darwin put forth 2 key ideas.
1. Present life forms have arisen by decent and modification from ancestral species.
2. The mechanism for modification is natural selection working over a long period of time
He proposed that all organisms descended from an unknown form, branching out from there. Over time, different braches became adapted to their separate environments. -
Charles Darwin (2)
An essay by Thomas Malthus (see Thomas Malthus) provided him with an idea. Darin proposed that individuals with desirable physiological, physical, or behavioural traits survived and reproduced more so than ones with undesirable traits. Therefore, these traits would get passed along and eventually the whole population would have those traits. So, different environments had different species because they need to have different traits to survive best in their environment. -
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Wallace published his findings, which were the same as Darwin's, around the same tme as Darwin. he had done his observations in the Amazon and the Malay Archipelago though. -
Henry West (1)
1996-?
West proposed that the most important event was Buffon publishing his Historie Naturelle. He was link from the archaic philosophies of the Greeks to the next theories. The superseding theories were based on his observations (to a point). Without him maybe none of the next people would have gotten their ideas. He made up his own, but the next ones were all based on his ideas. -
Henry West (2)
Without him the theory of evolution may not have been proposed when it was, making more confusion for a longer period of time.
Not sure if I got my ideas across properly, but whatever. and the dates are the scientists dates of birth, just to clear that up.
