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Period: Jan 1, 1500 to
Theories of Evolution
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John Ray (1626 - 1705)
John Ray was born. He established the modern concept of a species, noting that organisms of one species do not interbreed with members of another, using it as the basic unit of taxonomy. -
Carl Linneus (1707 - 1778)
Linnaeus catalogued the diversity of living things in a cohesive and logical manner - the now-familiar hierarchical way of arranging organisms. Linnaeus also included humans in his system, believing that humans and the apes were closely related and that they should be placed in the same genus. -
Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (1707 - 1788)
Buffon proposed that species could change This was a major break from earlier concepts that species were created by a perfect creator and therefore could not change because they were perfect. Buffon provided evidence of descent with modification and speculated on various causative mechanisms, mentioning several factors could influence evolutionary change. -
Erasmus Darwin (1731 - 1802)
He was aware that modern species were different to fossil types, and saw how plant and animal breeders used artificial selection to enhance their products, suggested the possibility of common descent based on changes undergone by animals during development, artificial selection by humans, and the presence of vestigial organs. -
Jean-Baptise Lamark (1744 - 1829)
Jean-Baptiste Lamark, (1 August 1744 – Paris, 18 December 1829), often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist. He was a soldier, biologist, academic, and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. -
Georges Cuiver (1769 - 1832)
Cuvier was a major figure in natural sciences research in the early 19th century.He is well known for establishing extinction as a fact, being the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century, and opposing the evolutionary theories of Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. His most famous work is Le Règne Animal (1817; English: The Animal Kingdom). -
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)
Charles Robert Darwin, FRS (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. -
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace, OM, FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist and biologist. He is best known for independently proposing a theory of evolution due to natural selection that prompted Charles Darwin to publish his own theory. -
Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species
Charles Darwin's The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection was first published. All 1,250 copies of the first printing were sold out on the very first day. -
Huxly/Wilberforce debate
Thomas Henry Huxley and Bishop Samuel Wilberforce of the Church of England engaged in their famous debate on Darwin's theory of evolution. -
Julian Huxly
Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.
