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Period: to
The Enlightenment/Age of Reason
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Nicolas Steno - Fossilized Shark Teeth
While dissecting a giant shark found off the coast of Livorno, Italy, Steno realized that the "stones" that people had referred to as "tongue stones" for years, were actually fossilized shark teeth. Steno discovered that fossils are snapshots of life throughout different moments in history. Steno's work on the formation of rock layers and the fossils found within them was critical in the development of the field of geology. | DEEP TIME -
Carl Linneus - Develops the modern hierarchical classification system
Carl Linnaeus created Linnaean taxonomy which is the system of scientific classification now widely used in the biological sciences. (Plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, etc.) | BINOMIAL NOMENCLATURE -
Period: to
Colonialism
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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck - Lamarckism
Lamarck stated that if an organism changes to adapt to its environment, those changes will be passed off to its offspring. This is called the line of descent. Lamarck also stated that if an organism doesn't use a body part it will eventually go way. -
Charles Lyell - Publishes "Principles of Geology"
Lyell's theories about the age and formation of the Earth contradicted the religious beliefs that events such as Noah's flood shaped the Earth. According to Lyell, the Earth went through a period of change that has since slowed to today's calmer pace. -
Charles Darwin - HMS Beagle Sets Sail
The HMS Beagle begins a five-year voyage which includes stopping at the Galapagos Islands. His observations of scientific phenomena lead Darwin to form his theory on the origin and development of life. | ADAPTIVE RADIATION -
Charles Lyell - Uniformitarianism
Charles developed the theory of Uniformitarianism which is the idea that the same natural laws that operate in the universe now and in the past, operate now and they apply everywhere. Charles also explored how these processes shaped the geology of the Earth. | UNIFORMITARIANISM -
Alfred Wallace - Publishes "On the Tendency of Species to form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection"
Alfred Russell Wallace independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles Darwin's writings. | NATURAL SELECTION -
Charles Darwin - Publishes "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection"
Darwin publishes "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection", the first detailed explanation of natural selection. | ADAPTIVE RADIATION & NATURAL SELECTION -
Charles Darwin - Publishes "The Descent of Man"
Darwin publishes "The Descent of Man", which argues that humans are descended from apes. | NATURAL SELECTION -
Franz Boas - Introduced the Theory of Cultural Relativism
Franz Boas introduced the theory of Cultural Relativism, which is the idea that all people have equally developed cultures. This theory also holds the belief that the differences between peoples were the result of historical, social, and geographic conditions -
Period: to
Post-Colonialism
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W. E. B. Dubois - Publishes "Evolution of the Negro"
50 years after the abolishment of slavery, Du Bois published "Evolution of the Negro" which details the progress that African American people labored for during the reconstruction era. -
Conrad H. Waddington - Introduced Epigenetics
Waddington recognized that cells had two types of inheritance patterns. Epigenetics is inheritance by mechanisms other than through the DNA sequence of genes. | NATURAL SELECTION -
Stephen Jay Gould - Co-Developed the Theory of Punctuated Equilibria
Stephen Jay Gould co-published a landmark paper developing their theory and called it punctuated equilibria. | PUNCTUATED EQUILIBRIUM
