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350
Aristotle
Greek philosopher, studied marine animals and developed an epigenetic model of evolution. He also developed a classification system for all animals. -
Period: 350 to
History Of Theories
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500
Xenophanes
He studied fossils and put forth various theories of evolution of life. -
520
Anaximander
Greek philosopher, of Miletus , wrote a text called " On Nature" in which he introduced an idea of evolution, stating that life started as slime in the oceansa and eventually moved to drier places. He also brought up the idea that species evolved over time. -
James Ussher
Ussher's belief is that the earth and life are only about 6000 years old and 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. -
Carolus Linnaeus
Linnaeus believed in the fixed nature of species, but he was later swayed by hybridization experiments in plants, which could produce new species. He still saw the new species created by plant hybridization to have been part of God's plan, and never considered the idea of open-ended, undirected evolution not mediated by the divine. -
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus never thought of natural selection but he did argue that all life could a have a single common ancestor, though he struggled with the concepts of a mechanism for this descent. He also discussed the effects of competition and sexual selection on possible changes in species. -
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus's theory was that populations can produce many more offspring than can possibly survive on the limited resources generally available. According to Malthus, poverty and disease were natural outcomes that resulted from overpopulation. Malthus also believed that divine forces were ultimately responsible for such outcomes, which, though natural, were designed by God -
The Great Chain Of Being
The chain starts from God and progresses downward to angels, demons, stars, moon, kings, princes, nobles, men, wild animals, domesticated animals, trees, other plants, precious stones, precious metals, and other minerals. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Lamarck believed that microscopic organisms appear spontaneously from inanimate materials and then evolve, gradually and progressively into more complex forms through a constant striving for perfection. The ultimate product of this goal-oriented evolution was thought by Lamarck to be humans. -
George Cuvier
Cuvier believed there was no evidence for the evolution of organic forms but there was evidence for succeeding creations after the catastrophic extinction events. Later, he believed the old species were replaced by new ones that repopulated Earth. -
Charles Lyell
Lyell believed that there are three volume Principles, 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. -
Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin's theory of evolution was that all life has descended from ancestors. This means that more complex creatures had developed from more simple ancestor's, naturally, overtime. This means the more aided creatures in survival survive to then pass on their better characteristics to the next generation. This then means that the human race and over life on the planet has improved over time. -
Russel Wallace
Wallace’s intelligent evolution limits the power of natural selection to effect biological change. It suggests that in those areas of the biological world beyond the scope of natural selection’s operations, some purposive intelligence must be called upon to explain their existence. -
Lynn Margulis
Margulis proposed that some of the organelles of eukaryotic cells were actually at one time their own prokaryotic cells that were engulfed by a bigger prokaryotic cell in a mutualistic relationship. -
Marlene Zuk
Zuk's research centers on sexual selection and the effects of parasites on mate choice and the evolution of secondary sex characters. I am also interested in the influence of parasites on host ecology and behavior.
