-
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, studied marine animals and developed an epigenetic model of evolution.
-
Xenophanes studied fossils and put forth various theories on the evolution of life
-
The Greek philosopher, Anaximander, wrote a text called "On Nature" in which he introduced an idea of evolution.
-
The traditional Judeo-Christian version of creationism was strongly reinforced by James Uusher, a 17th century Anglican archbishop of Armagh in Northern Ireland.
-
John Ray's book, "Historia Plantarum" described 18,600 kinds of plants and gave the first definition of species based upon common descent.
-
The concept of genus and species was actually developed in the late 1600's by John Ray, an English naturalist and ordained minister.
-
Carolus Linnaeus' most important contribution to science was in his book Systema Naturae, published in 1735.
-
The leading biological scientist of the mid 18th century was the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus. His 180 books are filled with precise descriptions of nature, but he did little analysis or interpretation.
-
Charles Bonnet, a Swiss naturalist, wrote his book "Philosophical Palingesis" that the females of each organism contain the next generation in a miniture form.
-
The French mathematician and naturalist, George Loues Leclerc, said that living things change through time and speculated that this was influenced by the environment or even chance. In 1774, he suggested that humans and apes are related.
-
Erasmun Darwin was the grandfather of Charles Darwin and also an English country physician, poet, and amateur scientist. He believe that evolution has occured in living things, including humans, but he only had fuzzy ideas of what might be responsible for this change.
-
Lyell provided conclusive evidence for the theory of uniformitarianism, which had been developed originally by the late 18th century Scottish geologist, James Hutton.
-
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was the first evolutionist to confidently and publicly state his ideas about the processes leading to biological change in 1809 with the publication entitled Philosophie Zoologique.
-
Althought George Cuvier did not agree with Lamarck's theory, he did not reject the idea that there had been earlier life forms. In fact, he was the first scientists to document extinctions of ancient animals and was internationally respected expert on dinosaurs.
-
George Cuvier advocated the theory of catastrophism. This is the theory that there have been violent and sudden natural catastrophies to help form major mountain chains.
-
Developed the first accurate geological map of England. He also, from his extensive travels, develope the Principle of Biological Succession.
-
In his three volumes of Principles of Geology (1830-1833), Lyell documented the fact that the earth must be very old and that it has been subject to the same sort of natural processes in the past that operate today in shaping the land.
-
The Roman Philosopher, Lucretius, coined the concept that all living things were related and that they had changed over time.
