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James Hutton
He was a Scottish geologist, physician, chemical manufacturer, naturalist, and experimental agriculturalist. He originated the theory of uniformitarianism—a fundamental principle of geology—which explains the features of the Earth’s crust by means of natural processes over geologic time. Hutton's work established geology as a proper science. Hutton also came to believe that the Earth was perpetually being formed by understanding how processes such as erosion and sedimentation work in the present -
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Erasmus Darwin
Was an English physician. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave-trade abolitionist, inventor and poet. His poems included much natural history, including a statement of evolution and the relatedness of all forms of life. Darwin was also a founding member of the Lunar Society of Birmingham, a discussion group of pioneering industrialists and natural philosophers. -
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William Paley
William Paley was an English clergyman, Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his natural theology exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity. -
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Jean-Babtiste Lamark
Jean-Baptiste Lamark a pioneer French biologist who is best known for his idea that acquired characters are inheritable and when environments changed, organisms had to change their behavior to survive. If they began to use an organ more than they had in the past, it would increase in its lifetime and vise versa. -
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John Stevens Henslow
Was an English clergyman, botanist and geologist. He is best remembered as friend and mentor to his pupil Charles Darwin. Henslow graduated in 1818. He already had a passion for natural history from his childhood, which largely influenced his career, and he accompanied Sedgwick in 1819 on a tour in the Isle of Wight where he learned his first lessons in geology. He also studied chemistry under Professor James Cumming and mineralogy under Edward Daniel Clarke. -
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Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the Earth was shaped by the same processes still in operation today. He was also one of the first to believe that the world is older than 300 million years, on the basis of its geological anomalies. He was also a close and influential friend of Charles Darwin. Lyell was one of the first scientists to support On the Origin of Species, but not fully. -
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Robert Chambers
Was a Scottish publisher, geologist, evolutionary thinker, author and journal editor who, like his elder brother and business partner William Chambers, was highly influential in mid-19th century science.
Chambers was an early phrenologist and was the anonymous author of Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation, presenting a comprehensive account of the history of the Earth, from the formation of the Solar System through the development of plant and animal life, up to the origins of humankind. -
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Charles Darwin
Was an English naturalist and geologist, best known for his contributions to evolutionary theory. He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding. -
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Alfred Wallace
Alfred Wallace also realised that if an animal has some trait that helps it to withstand the elements or to breed more successfully, it may leave more offspring behind than others. On average, the trait will become more common in the following generation, and the generation after that. This was known as Natural Selection, which is also the same idea Darwin was working on at the time.