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Carolus Linnaeus
(1707-1778)
-Swedish physician & botanist whose passion was taxonomy.
-developed a hierarchial classifications scheme & binomial nomenclature -
James Hutton
-Scottish geologist who offered an alternative to catastrophism
-proposed that the Earth was millions of years instead of a few thousands old
-preferred hypothesis for profound geologic change = gradualism -
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
(1744-1829)
-hypothesized that traits of species are not immutable, they can evolve
-stated that changes are adaptations to environment are acquired in an organisms lifetime
-acquired changes were passed to offsprin
LAW OF USE AND DISUSE
-if you don't use it, you lose it
-traits could be passed to offsprings -
Thomas Malthus
(1766-1834)
-English demographer
-hypothesis: plants anaimals are capable of producing far more offspring than resources can support; "struggle for existence" is an inescapable consequence
-each species struggles for: food, living space, mates -
Georges Cuvier
-French anatomist who largely developed paleontology, the study of fossils
-deeper strata (old rock) contain older taxa
-preferred hypothesis for profound geologic change= catastrophism
-stated that species disappeared due to a catastrophic evernt of the earth's crust -
Charles Lyell
(1797 - 1875)
-Scottish geologist who incorporated Hutton's gradualism into the theory of uniformitarianism
-geological processes at uniform rates building and wearing down earth's crust -
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
Natural Selection
-overproduction
-variation: inheritable features vary from individual to individual
-survival of the fit: those with more adaptive traits tend to survive longer and/or produce the most offspring; these are the "naturally selected" -
Alfred Russel Wallace
(1823-1913)
-English bilogist who also (independently) conceived of natural selection as the principal mechanism of adaptive evolution
-organisms evolved from common ancestors