Contributions Of Scientists To The Theory Of Evolution.

Question 1

George-louis lederec, Comte de Buffon
( 1707 - 1788)

Answer 1

• Challenged the idea that living things could not change.
• suggested possible common ancestors between apes and humans due to the similarities.
• suggested earth was much older than 6000 years (which was commonly agreed)

Question 2

Georges Cuvier (catastrophism)
1769 - 1832

Answer 2

• Founder of the field of paleontology - study of life through fossils.
• discovered the appearance and disappearance of species through layers of rocks.
* Explained observations of extinction through catastrophic events (volcanic eruptions floods, etc.)
- catastrophes - kind species and new species moved in their place.

Question 3

Charles Lyell (uniformitarianism)
1797 - 1875

Answer 3

• Rejected the idea of catastrophism
• uniformitarianism ~ believed slow geological changes have contributed to the large changes seen in the earth (believed in constant change)
• suggested earth is older than 6000 years.

Question 4

Jean-baptiste Lamarck (acquired traits)
1744 - 1829

Answer 4

-Theorized the driving force was meant to be perfect - progression from fossil species to recent species is due to the idea that species become complex to adapt to the environment.
- inheritance of acquired traits: adaptions could be acquired in lifetime and inherited offsprings.
- suggested that traits that weren’t in use would be lost in generation
~ ex: giraffe stretch to reach leaves on tall trees → necks become longer & is therefore the trait is acquired and passed onto the offspring.

Question 5

Thomas Malthus

Answer 5

Economist → observed humans.

Question 6

Charles Darwin (natural selection)
1809 - 1882

Answer 6

• English naturalist who travelled around the world on a ship called HMS beagle and collected many plant and animal specimen for 5 years to observe the diversity and variation, within them.
• process of natural selection: suggested that limited resources & competition between individuals result in the environment selecting organisms with the most suitable traits for surviving and to produce more offspring.

Question 7

Charles Darwin (part 2)

Answer 7

• Organisms with the best traits for survival pass their adaptions to the following generation, resulting in more individuals having those adaptions within the population.
• ideas were published in book “the origin of species” and Darwin called the theory of descent with modification - gradual changes from a common.

Question 8

Alfred Wallace
1823 - 1913

Answer 8

• Naturalist who travelled locations around the world & made similar observations to Darwin.
• worked on summarizing and trying to explain his observations of species variations and changes around the some time as Darwin.
• clarified & confirmed ideas related to evolution & natural selection with Darwin.