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Apr 16, 1557
Carl Linnaeus
On April 16 1557 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. -
Jan 1, 1579
The Great Chain of Being
says that God created an infinite number of life forms, each one grading into another, from simple to complex -
James Ussher
The traditional Judeo-Christian version of creationism was strongly reinforced by James Ussher. 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. -
John Ray
John Ray's book, "Historian Plantarum"; described many species of plants and talked about common ancestors. -
Carolus Linnaeus
The leading biological scientist of the 18th century was Carolus Linnaeus. 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. The goal of documenting change in nature would not have made sense to him. -
Erasmus Darwin believes in Evolution
The grandfather of Charles; Erasmus was a physician, poet, and amateur scientist who believed that evolution has occurred in living things including humans. He proclaimed this in his poems and other writings. -
Carl Linné
Carl Linné was considered the father of modern taxonomy for his work in hierarchical classification of various organisms. At first, he believed in the fixed nature of species, but he was nearly changed by hybridization experiments in plants, which could produce new species. However, he maintained his belief in special creation in the Garden of Eden, consistent with the Christian belief. in which he practiced. -
James Hutton
A geologist who thought that the natural forces now changing the shape of the earth's surface have been operating in the past much the same way. -
Lamarck
Lamarck believed in the inheritance of acquired characteristics. That is, he believed that evolution occurs when an organism uses a body part in such a way that it is altered during its lifetime and this change is then inherited by its offspring. -
Malthus
Thomas Malthus' theory of population growth was in the end what inspired Darwin to develop the theory of natural selection. According to Malthus, populations produce many more offspring than can possibly survive on the limited resources generally available. According to Malthus, poverty, famine, and disease were natural outcomes that resulted from overpopulation. However, Malthus believed that divine forces were ultimately responsible for such outcomes. -
George Cuvier
George Cuvier did not reject the idea that there had been earlier life forms. In fact, he was the first scientist to document extinctions of ancient animals. However, he rejected the idea that their existence implied that evolution had occurred. Cuvier advocated the theory of catastrophism . This held that there have been violent and sudden natural catastrophes such as great floods or major mountain movements caused change among species. -
Buffon's beliefs
Comte de Buffon, suggested that apes and humans are related somewhere along the line. -
Immanuel Kant anticipated Darwinian thinking.
Immanuel Kant developed a concept of descent that is relatively close to modern thinking, he did in a way anticipate Darwinian thinking. Based on similarities between organisms, Kant speculated that they may have come from a single ancestral source. In a thoroughly modern speculation, he mused that "an orang-outang or a chimpanzee may develop the organs which serve for walking, grasping objects, and speaking-in short, that lie may evolve the structure of man, " -
Charles Lyell
A careful examination of geological deposits led the English scientist, Charles Lyell, to conclude that Cuvier's catastrophism theory was wrong. He believed that there primarily have been slower, progressive changes. 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,etc. -
The theory of uniformitarianism
Lyell provided conclusive evidence for the theory of uniformitarianism, which had been developed originally by the late 18th century Scottish geologist, James Hutton. -
The Birth of Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin is born on February12, 1809. -
Principles of Geology
One of the key works in the nineteenth-century battle between science and Scripture, Charles Lyell's Principles of Geology sought to explain the geological state of the modern Earth by considering the long-term effects of observable natural phenomena. -
Wallace and Darwin
In 1858, Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace released a joint scientific paper which introduced the concept of evolution by means of natural selection. This paper, along with Darwin’s subsequent publication, “The Origin of Species”, changed the way science and society explained events in our natural world. -
The Origin of Species
Darwin’s book, “The Origin of Species”, changed the way science and society explained events in our natural world. -
Medieval Thinking
Medieval thinking was also, oddly enough, confused by the idea of spontaneous generation, which stated that living things can appear fully formed from inorganic matter.
