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Period: to
Origins of Evolutionary Thought
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James Hutton
Developed the theory of uniformitarianism- a principle of geology which explains the features of the earth’s crust by means of natural processes over geological time. Known as the “Father of Modern Geology.” -
Thomas Malthus
Wrote an essay on population growth and the future improvement of society. Between 1798 and 1826 he published six editions of “An Essay on The Principle of Population”. This essay gave rise to the Malthusian controversy because he believed population growth would lead to a utopian society. He wrote the following about populations: "That the increase of population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence, That population does invariably increase when the means of subsistence increase." -
Jean Baptiste Lamark
Remembered for the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics and coining the terms for special sciences like geology, chemistry, and meteorology. He was a biologist, soldier, and French Naturalist, as well as a favorable taxonomist. The inheritance of acuired characteristics is a hypothesis that states the changes developed over the life of an organism may be transmitted to offspring. -
Patrick Matthew
Published the basic concept of natural selection in an appendix in his book “On Naval Timber” but it wasn’t until Darwin that the idea became more popular. However since it was only published in an appendix none of his other work was published on this matter. -
Charles Lyell
Supported the theory of uniformitarianism, contributing an explanation of earthquakes and the formation of volcanoes. He was one of the first to believe the earth was more than 300 million years old, and influenced the thinking of his friend Charles Darwin significantly. -
Charles Darwin
Created the evolutionary theory of natural selection and established all species of life descended from common ancestors. He studied the inhabitants of the Galapagos Islands while voyaging on the HMS Beagle for five years. -
Alfred Russel Wallace
Supported Darwin’s theory and was able to give Darwin some advice on his theory. He also came up with the Wallace effect, and wrote the book Darwinism which explained natural selection as well as putting forward new ideas.
