Early Ideas about Evolution

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Early Ideas about Evolution
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James Ussher
Archbishop of Ireland in the 17th century

• Used generations in the bible to fix the date of
  creation to 4004 B.C.
• Life was about 6000 years old
• Creationist
• God created an infinite continuous series of
  life forms
• All have remained unchanged since creation

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Beliefs in the 18th century

• Before Darwin, two ideas about life on Earth
  prevailed
• Species are fixed, or permanent. In other words,
  they do not change.
• Earth itself is less than 10,000 years old and
  also relatively unchanging.
• These ideas were challenged as people became
  aware of the incredible diversity of organisms,
  past and present, and the nature of Earth's
  geologic processes.

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Karl Linneaus
Swedish botanist in the 18th century

• Precise descriptions of nature
• Purpose to reveal the unchanging order of life
  created by God
• Problem Noticed that hybrids could be created
• Designed a logical classification system

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George Leclerc
French zoologist in the late 18th century

• Living things change through time
• Earth must be at least 75,000 years old
• Species could NOT evolve into other species

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Erasmus Darwin
English physician / amateur scientist in the late
18th century

• Evolution has occurred in living things
• Humans evolved

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Jean Lamarck
French biologist in the 19th century

• New idea on how evolution occurs.
• Simple organisms spontaneously arise and
  inevitably develop into more complex forms
• Evolution due to the inheritance of acquired
  characteristics individuals acquire traits in
  their lifetimes as a result of experience or
  behavior, then pass on these traits.

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Jean Lamarck

• Create your own example of Lamarkian evolution.

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George Cuvier
French anatomist in the early 19th century

• Reconstructed the appearance of unique organisms
  from fossil bones.
• Some organisms from the past different greatly
  from any living species
• Fossils in deeper layers of rock were increasing
  different from living species
• Some organisms had become extinct

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George Cuvier
French anatomist in the early 19th century
Idea of CATASTROPHISM gtgt sudden geologic
catastrophes caused the extinction of large
groups of organisms at certain points in the
past. Contributed to scientific acceptance that
geologic change and extinction had occurred.
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Charles Lyell
English geologist in the 19th century

• Uniformintarianism slower, progressive changes
• Geologic processes that have changed the shape of
  Earths surface in the past continue to work in
  the same ways
• Evidence from geology would contribute to
  Darwins conclusions

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Charles Darwin
Naturalist in the 19th century

• Voyage to collect plants and animals
• Came up with evolution through natural selection
  based on his observations