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John Ray
The concept of genus and species was actually developed in the late 1600's. However, it was Linnaeus who used this system to name us Homo sapiens (literally, "wise men"). -
Carolus Linnaeus
considered the father of modern taxonomy for his work in hierarchical classification of various organisms. -
Karl von Linné
His 180 books are filled with precise descriptions of nature, but he did little analysis or interpretation. This is to be expected since Linnaeus apparently believed that he was just revealing the unchanging order of life created by God. -
Immanuel Kant
developed a concept of descent that is relatively close to modern thinking; he did in a way anticipate Darwinian thinking. -
Erasmus Darwin
he argued that all life could have a single common ancestor, though he struggled with the concepts of a mechanism for this descent. -
Karl von Linné
His most important contribution to science was his logical classification system for all living things which he proposed in his book Systema Naturae, first published in 1735. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
theory of evolution was a good try for his time, but has now been discredited by experimental evidence and the much more plausible mechanism of modification proposed by Darwin. Lamarck saw species as not being fixed and immutable, but rather in a constantly changing state. -
Thomas Malthus
According to Malthus, populations produce many more offspring than can possibly survive on the limited resources generally available. -
The loves of plants
Erasmus Darwin made a poem of evolution titled "The Loves of Plants" -
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace
Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace both independently developed the idea of the mechanism of natural selection after reading Thomas Malthus' Essay on the Principle of Population (1798). -
Malthus's Essay
An essay on the pricipal of Population Caused great controversy among the optimistic positivists of his day. -
Begining Naturalist
Alfred Russel Wallace decided to travel the world as a naturalist -
Ship
Wallace embarked for the UK on the brig Helen. After 28 days at sea, the ship's cargo caught fire and the crew was forced to abandon ship. All of the specimens Wallace had on the ship, the vast majority of what he had collected during his entire trip, were lost.