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100
Anaximander of Miletus
(c.610–546 BC)
Proposed the theory that animals first lived in water during the Earth's 'wet phase'. Also proposed that our very first ancestors were born in water, and only spend some time on land. Says that the first human must have been a child of another animal/species. -
100
Plato
(c. 428–348 BC)
named Ernst Mayr. Promoted his belief in essentialism (Theory of Forms). This theory says that each natural type of object in the world is an imperfect manifestation of the ideal, form or "species" which defines that type. -
100
Aristotle
(384–322 BC)
Aristotle believed that features of living organisms showed that they must have had a 'final cause', meaning that they had been designed for a purpose. It was the complete opposite of Empedocles theory where he believed that living things were created by chance. -
100
Empedocles
(c. 490–430 BC)
Believed that living creatures were created by chance and the first animals and plants were like different parts of the ones we see today, where some join in different ways, and then mixing, and making it like everything turned out as it would have if it were on purpose. -
Period: 100 to
Theories of Evolution by Paula Jane Carmelo
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500
Xenophanes
Made many theories about the evolution of life and studied fossils -
Jan 4, 1581
James Ussher
Proposed a theory that God created a series of life forms, and that all humans were created just as they are today, and did not change or evolve into something else. -
John Ray
Developed the concept of genus and species. Proposed the theory that we were biologically closer to other primates rather than animals. -
Carolus Linnaeus
Believed that he was just revealing the unchanging order of life created by God. Documenting the change in nature made no sense to him. -
Immanuel Kant
German philosopher. Speculated that humans may have come from a single ancestral source. -
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
He thought that speciation took place by chance events in nature, rather than by spontaneous generation as was believed at the time. -
Charles Bonnet
Believed natural disasters created evolutionary changes in organisms and that humans would 'climb a ladder of life', where humans become angels. -
George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Said that living things do change over time which is influenced by the environment or change. Believed that Earth must be much older than 6000 years old. Soon after, speculated that Earth must be 75,000 years olf and that apes and humans are related. -
Erasmus Darwin
Believed evolution has occured in living things, including humans but was still confused on what was responsible for the change. He then suggested that earth and life must have been evolving "millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind." -
Alfred Russel Wallace
Along with Charles Darwin, they both developed the idea of the mechanism of Natural Selection. -
Charles Darwin
An English Naturalist who established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and this pattern of evolution resulted from a process he called Natural Selection.
