Pre-Darwinian Theories (Plus Extra Pre/post Darwinian Theories For Extra Credit)
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Period: to
Pre Darwinian
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The Theory of "Great Chain of Being."
This belief that the earth and life on it are only about 6000 years old fit neatly with the then prevalent theory of the "Great Chain of Being." This held that God created an infinite and continuous series of life forms, each one grading into the next, from simplest to most complex, and that all organisms, including humans, were created in their present form relatively recently and that they have remained unchanged since then. -
Judeo-Christian version of creationism was strongly reinforced by James Ussher
The traditional Judeo-Christian version of creationism was strongly reinforced by James Ussher , a 17th century Anglican archbishop of Armagh in Northern Ireland. By counting the generations of the Bible and adding them to modern history, he fixed the date of creation at October 23, 4004 B.C. During Ussher's lifetime, debate focused on the details of his calculations rather than on the approach. Dr. Charles Lightfoot proclaimed that the time of creation was 9:00 A.M. on October 23, 4004 B.C. -
John Ray, an English naturalist and ordained minister.
The concept of genus and species was actually developed in the late 1600's by John Ray, an English naturalist and ordained minister. However, it was Linnaeus who used this system to name us Homo sapiens (means, "wise men"). He also placed us in the order Primates (a larger, more inclusive category than our genus) along with all of the apes, monkeys, and prosimians. This was very controversial at the time since it implied that people were part of nature, along with other animals and plants. -
Carolus Linnaeus Birth
Carolus Linnaeus, or Carl Linné considered the father of modern taxonomy for his work in hierarchical classification he believed in the fixed nature of species as Darwin. He was born on 1703 May 23 Carl Linneaeus was born in smaland. -
German philosopher Immanuel Kant's birth
German philosopher Immanuel Kant developed a concept of descent thinking that is relatively close to Darwin's Thinking.Born on 1724 April in konigsburg Prussia the German philosopher Immanuel Kant was born to a family of the Prietist sect. -
Carolus Linnaeus studies medicine
In 1727 Carlus Linnaeus arrives in Lund to study medicine, he remains in the town for a year. -
Carolus Linnaeus writes first paper
Carl Linnaeus moves to Uppsala and continues his studies in medicine. He then writes his first academic paper: "Præludia sponsaliorum plantarum" ("On the prelude to the wedding of plants"). -
Immanuel Kent's education
On 1734 April Immanuel Kent enters collegium Fredericianum to study the theology execcels in the classics. -
Carl Linnaeus publishes first edition of systema nature
On June 18 1735 Carl Linnaeus publishes the first edition of "Systema Naturæ" – his famous work classifying the natural world. Carl Linnaeus defends his doctoral thesis, on malaria, in Harderwijk in Holland. He remains in Holland for three years. -
Carl Linnaeus was appointed as Professor of Medicine
On March 18 1741 Carl Linnaeus was appointed as Professor of Medicine in Uppsala. He travels during the year to Gotland and Öland, commissioned by parliament to look for natural resources. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck birth
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's experimental evidence and the much more plausible mechanism of modification proposed by Darwin.Lamarck subscribed to a number of what we now know to be false beliefs about inheritance. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's was born on August 1, 1744, in the village of Bazentin-le-Petit in the north of France. -
Carl Linnaeus names plants
Carl Linnaeus Publishes his system for giving Latin names to plants Carl Linnaeus is ennobled for his major contributions to the nation and to science. He takes the name Carl von Linné. -
The French mathematician and naturalist, Comte de Buffon
The French mathematician and naturalist, George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon , actually said that living things do change through time. He speculated that this was somehow a result of influences from the environment or even chance. He believed that the earth must be much older than 6000 years. In 1774, in fact, he speculated that the earth must be at least 75,000 years old. He also suggested that humans and apes are related. -
Carolus Linnaeus died
Carl Linnneaeus died on January 10 1778 -
The Late 18th Century Closet-Evolutionist, Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus was an English country physician, poet, and amateur scientist. He believed that evolution has occurred in living things, including humans. He wrote of his ideas about evolution in poems and a relatively obscure two volume scientific publication entitled Zoonomia; or, the Laws of Organic Life (1794-1796). In this latter work, he also suggested that the earth and life on it must have been evolving for "millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind." -
James Hutton
The theory of uniformitarianism , was developed originally by the late 18th century Scottish geologist, James Hutton. This held that the natural forces now changing the shape of the earth's surface have been operating in the past much the same way. In other words, the present is the key to understanding the past. -
Thomas Malthus's Theory
Thomas Malthus introduced the theory that populations produce more offspring than they can survive -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published
On 1801, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck began to publish details of his evolutionary theories. On the same year Jean-Baptiste Lamarck took on the enormous challenge of learning -- and creating a new field of biology. . -
Immanuel Kent died
Immanuel Kent died on February 12 1804 never traveled more than forty miles from his home town. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Books
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck published a series of books on invertebrate zoology and paleontology. Of these, philosophies ans Zoologique published in 1809 But Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's works never became popular during his lifetime,about the theory of evolution. -
The French Scientist, George Cuvier
Cuvier advocated the theory of catastrophism , as did most other leading scientists of his day. This held that there have been violent and sudden natural catastrophes such as great floods and the rapid formation of major mountain chains. Plants and animals living in those parts of the world where such events occurred were often killed off according to Cuvier. Then new life forms moved in from other areas. As a result, the fossil record for a region shows abrupt changes in species. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck died
Most of Jean-BaptisteLamarck's life was a constant struggle against poverty and around 1818 Jean-Baptiste Lamarck he began to lose his sight. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck died on December 28 1829. -
The English Lawyer and Geologist, Charles Lyell
Lyell believed that there primarily have been slower, progressive changes. In his three volume Principles of Geology (1830-1833), Lyell documented the fact that the earth must be very old and that it has been subject to the same sort of natural processes in the past that operate today in shaping the land. These forces include erosion, earthquakes, glacial movements, volcanoes, and even the decomposition of plants and animals. -
Alfred Wallace's Theory
English naturalist known for independently proposing a theory of evolution due to natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory. -
Charles Darwin first theory published
On February 5 1838, the first volume of "Zoology" was published from the Voyage of Darwin, 1836 Darwin started discovering that his thoughts were more like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's thoughts about evolution, so Darwin decided to not publish any of his transmutation theories for many years to come. -
Period: to
Post Darwinian
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Gregor Mendel's Theory
Mendel demonstrated that the inheritance of certain traits in pea plants follows particular patterns -
Alfred Wegener's Theory
He is most notable for his theory of continental drift, which hypothesized that the continents were slowly drifting around the Earth.
