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350
Aristole (350 BC)
The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, studied marine animals and developed an epigenetic model of evolution. He also developed a classification system for all animals. -
500
Xenophanes (500 BC)
Xenophanes studied fossils and put forth various theories on the evolution of life. -
520
Anaximander (520 BC)
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. -
Jan 1, 1260
Thomas Aquinas
Believed that life could form from non-living creatures and from plants. -
Jan 1, 1400
Greece's Theory
While the Greeks did not specifically refer to their concepts as evolution, they did have a philosophical notion of descent with modification. Several different Greek philosophers subscribed to a concept of origination, arguing that all things originated from water or air. -
Jan 1, 1581
James Ussher
17th century archbishop of Armagh Ireland. By counting the generations of the Bible and adding them to modern history, he fixed the date of creation at October 23rd, 4004 B.C. During Ussher's lifetime, debate focused only on the details of his calculations rather than on the approach. Dr. Charles Lightfoot of Cambridge University in England had the last word. He proclaimed that the time of creation was 9:00 am on October 23rd, 4004 B.C. -
John Ray
His book, "Historia Plantarum" catalogued and described18,600 kinds of plants and gave the first definition of species based upon common descent. -
Carolus Linnaeus
Carolous outlined a method for classifying all organisms. He believed new species within genera would come into being through hybridization, but only under the controlling hand of god. Also, he thought there was a divine order to all organisms and developed his classification system to reveal this order. -
Comte de Buffon
He said that living things do change through time and that the Earth must be much older. -
Charles Bonnet
His first book said that the females of each organism contain the next generation in miniature form. Charles also believed that natural catastrophes sparked evolutionary changes in organisms. -
James Hutton
On June 3rd 1726 Hutton proposed the idea that the natural force are currently changing the Earths surface. -
George Cuvier
Due to weakness of Lamarck's theory it was relatively easy for the French scientists and others to discredit the idea of inheritanceof acquired characteristics. First scientist to documentthe extinction of ancient animals and was an internationally recgonized expert on dinosaurs. -
Thomas Malthus
Malthus observed that sooner or later population gets checked by famine and disease. He wrote in opposition to the popular view in 18th-century Europe that saw society as improving and in principle as perfectible. -
Erasmus Darwin
Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802) was also a distinguished naturalist with his own intriguing ideas about evolution. -
Immanuel Kant
A German philosopher who developed a concept of descent that is close to modern thinking, in a way he anticipated Darwins thinking. -
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck of France, published Zoonomia, which states that all "warm-blooded" animals have evolved from one living anscestor -
charles Lyell
He was obsessed with the implications of the evolutionary theory of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. In Lyell's view, if Lamarck was right then religion was a fable, man was just a better beast, and moral fabric of society would crumble to dust. -
William Charles Wells
As a front runner, or sort of "spokes person" for evolution, Wells often spread the ideas and even spoke infront of the Royal Selection. -
Alfred Russel Wallace
Wallace along with Darwin developed the theory of Natural Selection. However Wallace published his ideas before Darwin. -
Gregor Mendel
Father of genetics, he studied the inheritance of traits in pea plants. He read Darwins book "Origin of Species"
