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The Greek philosopher, Aristotle, studied marine animals and developed an epigenetic model of evolution. He also developed a classification system for all animals.
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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.
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John Ray, an English naturalist and ordained minister, adopted the concept of genus and species. Organisms were given two Latin names--genus os species. Each genus could have many related species. Each genus was also part of larger categories of living things. This system of classification is today the basis for naming and describing organisms in all fields of biology.
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William Harve published a book which describes how the embryo is built.
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Carolus Linnaeus, a Swedish born naturalist, published his book, "Systema Naturae" in which he outlined a method for classifying all organisms. This method is still in use today (generas, orders, classes and kingdoms).
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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.
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Georges- Louis Leclerc began publishing his book which notes similarities between humans and apes and that they share a common ancestor.
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Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis in his book, "Systeme de la Nature" 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. About ten years earlier he had published a book called, "Essai de Cosmologie" in which he introduced the concept of stronger animals in a population having more offspring.
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Charles Bonnet, a Swiss naturalist, wrote in his book, "Philosophical Palingesis" that the females of each organism contain the next generation in miniature form.
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Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin wrote that "warm-blooded animals have arisen from one living filament... possessing the faculty of continuing to improve by its own inherent activity."
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James Hutton proposed a theory of geological uniformitarianism.
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Georges Cuvier publishes studies of mammoth anatomy. He suggests that species can go extinct.
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In 1809 he had published his theory, which stated that there was an ‘active fluid’ that acted on matter to spontaneously and continuously create the most primitive organisms. These organisms would then change during their life as they adapted to their ecological roles. Finally ]they would pass on these acquired characteristics to their offspring.
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Geologist Charles Lyell published his "Principles of Geology," promoting the idea that the surface of the Earth is always changing.
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Gregor Mendel presented experiments on heredity in hybrid pea plants.
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He isolsted a molecule rich in Phosphorus & Nitrogen that he calls nuclein which is later found to be DNA.
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He established a theory that germ cells carry the inheritable materials which are passed to the next generation.
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Wegener was browsing in the university library when he came across a scientific paper that listed fossils of identical plants and animals found on opposite sides of the Atlantic. Intrigued by this information, Wegener began to look for, and find, more cases of similar organisms separated by great oceans.
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Raymond Dart published his discoveryof a fossilized skull from a new species, Australopithecus africanus, a key member of the human evolutionary tree.
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This was the date which James Ussher, a 17th century Anglican archbishop of Armagh in Northern Ireland, affixed the date of creation based on the generations of the Bible.
