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350
Aristotle
studied marine animals and developed an epigenetic model of evolution. He also developed a classification system for all animals. -
500
Anaximander
The Greek philosopher, 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
studied fossils and put forth various theories on the evolution of life. -
Jan 1, 1581
James Ussher
a 17th century Anglican archbishop of Armagh in Northern Ireland. By counting the generations of the Bible and adding them to modern history, he fixed the date of creation at October 23, 4004 B.C. -
John Ray
His book, "Historia Plantarum" catalogued and described 18,600 kinds of plants and gave the first definition of species based upon common descent. -
Carolus Linnaeus
Linnaeus believed that he was just revealing the unchanging order of life created by God. The goal of documenting change in nature would not have made sense to him. Late in his life, he was troubled by the fact that plant hybrids could be created by cross pollination. These were varieties that had not existed before. Linnaeus stopped short of concluding that these plants had evolved -
Comte de Buffon
He believed that the earth must be much older than 6000 years. In 1774, in fact, he speculated that the earth must be at least 75,000 years old. He also suggested that humans and apes are related. -
Immanuel Kant
developed a concept of descent that is relatively close to modern thinking; he did in a way anticipate Darwinian thinking. Based on similarities between organisms, Kant speculated that they may have come from a single ancestral source. -
Erasmus Darwin
He believed that evolution has occurred in living things, including humans, but he only had rather fuzzy ideas about what might be responsible for this change. -
Benoit de Maillet
Benoit de Maillet taught that fish were the forefathers of birds, mammals and men. -
Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
theorized on the nature of heredity and how new species come into being. He thought that speciation took place by chance events in nature, rather than by spontaneous generation as was believed at the time. -
Thomas Malthus
According to Malthus, populations produce many more offspring than can possibly survive on the limited resources generally available. According to Malthus, poverty, famine, and disease were natural outcomes that resulted from overpopulation. -
Carl Linnaeus
. He lived abroad between 1735 and 1738, where he studied and also published a first edition of his Systema Naturae in the Netherlands. He then returned to Sweden, where he became professor of botany at Uppsala. In the 1740s, he was sent on several journeys through Sweden to find and classify plants and animals. In the 1750s and 60s, he continued to collect and classify animals, plants, and minerals, and published several volumes. At the time of his death, he was one of the most acclaimed scient -
Georges Cuvier
Cuvier believed that animals were functional wholes. In other words, if any part of an animal were to become modified the animal would die because all of its parts are interdependent. It follows from this that Cuvier did not believe in evolution of any kind. He also believed that an animal's function determined its form. -
Charles Lyell
He believed that there primarily have been slower, progressive changes. 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. These forces include erosion, earthquakes, glacial movements, volcanoes, and even the decomposition of plants and animals. -
Alfred Russell Wallace
Published a book with Charles Darwin in 1798. He got inspired from reading "Essay on the Principal of Population" by Thomas Malthus. -
William "Strata" Smith
Developed the first accurate geological map of England. He also, from his extensive travels, develope the Principle of Biological Succession -
Robert Chambers
Robert Chambers, a Scottish publisher, anonymously published his book, Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation. The book supported evolution. -
Lucretius
The Roman Philosopher, Lucretius, coined the concept that all living things were related and that they had changed over time. -
Charles Bonnet
Charles Bonnet, a Swiss naturalist, wrote his book "Philosophical Palingesis" that the females of each organism contain the next generation in a miniture form.
