-
350
Aristotle
He studied marine animals and developed an epigenetic model of evolution. He also developed a classification system for all animals. -
520
Anaximander
Anaximander introduced an idea of evolution, stating that life started as slime in the oceans and eventually moved to drier places. He had also brought up the idea that species evolved over time. -
John Ray
Ray's book catalogued and described 18,600 kinds of plants and gave the first definition of species based upon common descent. http://www.aboutdarwin.com/literature/Pre_Dar.html -
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
Louis' book theorized on the nature of heredity and how new species come into being. He introduced the concept of stronger animals in a population having more offspring, something akin to Darwin's theory of the survival of the fittest. -
Carolus Linnaeus (Karl von Linné )
Carolous outlined a method for classifying all organisms. He believed new species within genera would come into being through hybridization, but only under the controlling hand of god. Also, he thought there was a divine order to all organisms and developed his classification system to reveal this order. -
Comte de Buffon
He said that living things do change through time and that the Earth must be much older. -
Charles Bonnet
His first book said that the females of each organism contain the next generation in miniature form. Charles also believed that natural catastrophes sparked evolutionary changes in organisms. -
Erasmus Darwin
This was actually Charle Darwin's grandfather. He believed that evolution has occurred in living things including humans. -
Jean Baptiste Chevalier de Lamarck
He was one of the very first evolutionary theorist to very publicly proclaim his ideas about the processes leading to biological change. His theory was based on the belief that evolution was mostly due to the inheritance of acquired characteristics as creatures adapted to their environments. -
Thomas Malthus
Malthus observed that sooner or later population gets checked by famine and disease. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible. -
George Cuvier
Cuvier's theory is a loss of your hand in an accident would result in your future children being born with only one hand too. -
Boucher de Perthes
He was noted for being one of the first academics to form the idea that archaeological history could be charted using periods of geological time. -
Charles Lyell
Charles believed that there was more commonly an accumulation of progressive changes over long periods of geologic time. He documented the fact that the earth must be extremely old and that throughout time the planet has continually undergone processes that change and shape the land. -
Gregor Mendel
Mendel realized that plant and animal populations are composed of individuals that vary from each other in physical form. He also understood that nature selects from the existing varieties those traits that are most suited to their environment. -
Alfred Wallace
Wallace noticed many plants and animals had special features enabling them to survive the conditions which they lived. These observations led him to develop a theory about how the species of plantes and animals gradually change over time.
