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350
Aristotle, 350 B.C.
The Greek philosopher, studied marine animals and developed a model of evolution & a system for classifying all animals. -
354
St. Augustine of Hippo
Medieval theory that God created the universe. In this universe were "seeds" that grew & developed from outlines that God had laid down. -
500
Anaximander, 520 B.C.
The Greek philosopher, Anaximander of Miletus, wrote a text called "On Nature" in which he introduced an idea of evolution, stating that life started as slime in the oceans and eventually moved to drier places. He also brought up the idea that species evolved over time. -
500
Xenophanes, 500 B.C.
Xenophanes studied fossils and put forth various theories on the evolution of life. -
James Ussher, 1600s
A Judeo-Christian man who came up with the theory of creation for his faith. By counting the generations of the Bible and adding them to modern history, he believed he had found the date of Earth's creation at October 23, 4004 B.C. -
John Ray, 1683
John Ray's book "Historia Plantarum" discribed thousands of plants & animals. He was also the first to give defination of descends of common ancestors. -
Immanuel Kant
German philosopher that spectated that similar organisms came from a common ancestrial source. -
Carolus Linnaeus, 1735
Born in Sweden, he became a naturalist & published the book "Systema Naturae."In this book, he outlined a method to classifying the different types of organisms, which is still in use today. He believed that new species came from hybridizations, but was still for the most part in the hands of God. -
Comte de Buffon, 1749
A French naturalist, came up with the definition of a species. Which is a group of organisms that can breed and produce offspring. He thought that all organisms were created by god and arranged in a hierarchy with mankind at the top of creation. -
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis, 1751
In his book "Systeme de la Nature" he theorized of how speciation took place by chance events in nature instead of by spontaneous generation. He also theorized of servival of the fittest. -
Thomas Malthus
His theory of population was one reason why Charles Darwin developed the theory of natural selection. According to his theory, populations produce far more off spring than can survive. Disease, famine & other natural occurances kept from over populating. -
Charles Bonnet
Wrote the book "Philosophical Palingesis" in which he theorized of how he believed that organisms climbed a "ladder of life" with animals becoming intelligent, primates into humans, then humans into angels. -
Erasmus Darwin
An English physician, poet, & naturalist developed theories of evolution in his book "Zoonomia." He believed all life shared the same common ancestor. -
James Hutton
Scottish geologist who proposed idea of gradualism. -
Georges Cuvier
A French naturalist that founded vertebrate paleontology, confirmed that species can become extinct, and developed a classification system for animals. -
Period: to
After Darwin
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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
His book "Philosophie Zoologique," stated that animals evolved from simpler forms. He didn't believe species became extinct, more as rather they evolved into other species. His view on evolution was that as the environment changed, animals needed to change in order to survive. He also supported the notion that offspring inherited traits changed through use or disuse. -
Charles Lyell
In evolution, he believed change happened more slowly. In his book, Principles of Geology, he documented the fact that the Earth was extremely old & that it has been subject to natural processes such as volcanic eruptions, earth quakes, glaciers & volcanoes. -
Alfred Wallace
English naturalist known for proposing a theory of evolution because of natural selection. He prompted Darwin to publish his own theory. -
George Gaylord Simpson
He wrote that the only sort of evolution documented in the fossil record were several occurances were similar fossils would be found, but with varying differences. -
Period: to
PreDarwinian
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Wedding<3
The day Channing Tatum & i will get married. (; -
Othman Amr al-Jahiz
Islamic writer purposed evolution as "from mineral to plant, from plant to animal, & from animal to man."
