-
James Ussher , a 17th century Anglican archbishop of Armagh in Northern Ireland, Counted the generations of the Bible and addied them to modern history. During Ussher's lifetime, debate focused only on the details of his calculations rather than on the approach. Dr. Charles Lightfoot proclaimed that creation was on October 23, 4004 B.C
-
The great chain of being is a Christian concept detailing a strict, religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life, believed to have been decreed by the Christian God.
-
The concept of genus and species was actually developed in the late 1600's by John Ray, an English naturalist and ordained minister. However, it was Linnaeus who used this system to name us Homo sapiens. He also placed us in the order Primates along with all of the apes, monkeys, and prosimians. This was very controversial at the time since it implied that people were part of nature, along with other animals and plant
-
Comte de Buffon, a French naturalist, developed the modern definition of a species; a group of organisms which can breed and produce fertile offspring. He thought that all organisms were created by god and arranged in a hierarchy with mankind at the top of creation.
-
Carolus Linnaeus is often called the Father of Taxonomy. His system for naming, ranking, and classifying organisms is still in wide use today. His ideas on classification have influenced generations of biologists during and after his own lifetime, even those opposed to the philosophical and theological roots of his work.
-
French mathematician and naturalist, Comte de Buffon , actually said that living things do change through time. He speculated that this was somehow a result of influences from the environment or even chance. 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.
-
Charles Bonnet, a Swiss naturalist, wrote in his book, "Philosophical Palingesis" that the females of each organism contain the next generation in miniature form. He believed that natural catastrophes sparked evolutionary changes in organisms. His idea of evolution was analogous to organisms climbing a ladder of life, with animals becoming intelligent, primates becoming human, and humans becoming angels.
-
German philosopher Immanuel Kant developed a concept of descent thinking that is relatively close to Darwin's Thinking
-
the theory of uniformitarianism , which had been developed by James Hutton.Held that the natural forces now changing the shape of the earth's surface have been operating in the past much the same way. In other words, the present is the key to understanding the past.
-
In 1727 Carolus Linnaeus studied medicine, first at the University of Lund and then at the University of Uppsala. Medicine at this time was based on herbalism so it meant he also studied plants
-
Carl Linnaeus moves to Uppsala and then writes his first academic paper: "Præludia sponsaliorum plantarum" ("On the prelude to the wedding of plants").
-
Erasmus was an English country physician, poet, and amateur scientist. 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
-
William Paley was a British Christian apologist, philosopher, and utilitarian. He is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God in his work Natural Theology, which made use of the watchmaker analogy
-
Although Lamarck's explanation of evolution was incorrect his experimental evidence and the much more plausible mechanism of modification proposed by Darwin.
-
Thomas Malthus introduced the theory that populations produce more offspring than they can survive
-
Cuvier advocated the theory of catastrophism , as did most other leading scientists of his day. This held that there have been violent and sudden natural catastrophes. Plants and animals living in those parts of the world where such events occurred were often killed off according to Cuvier.
-
In December 1777, he had a stroke which greatly weakened him, and eventually led to his death on 10 January 1778 in Hammarby. Despite his desire to be buried in Hammarby, he was interred in Uppsala Cathedral on 22 January. His library and collections were left to his widow Sara and their children
-
Charles Lyell 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.
-
He established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection.
-
Lamarck gradually turned blind and died in Paris on December 18, 1829. When he died, his family was so poor they had to apply to the Academie for financial assistance. Lamarck's books and the contents of his home were sold at auction, and his body was buried in a temporary lime-pit.
