Early History Flashcards
What did Aristotle believe about life and the organisms on the earth? Did he believe in evolution?
Believed nature was a hierarchy, with simple organisms at the bottom and humans at the top. Species were permanent and unchanging, perfected adapted to their environments
What was Aristotle’s scale of nature called?
Scala naturae
What is natural theology?
Everything was created by God, but after they were created they were bound by some sort of natural laws
What did Pliny the Elder believe about fossils?
He thought certain fossils (like shark teeth) fell to earth during a lunar eclipse, and others grew inside the earth with no connection to living creatures
Who was Carolus Linnaeus? What did he do?
A swedish botanist, naturalist, and doctor who developed the binomial system of naming organisms. He wrote two books that outlined the naming rules for plants and animals
Who was James Hutton? What did he do? What two processes did he describe?
The father of modern geology. From examining rocks, he proposed that the earth was ancient instead of only being 6000 years old as believed at the time. Proposed uniformitarianism and gradualism
What is uniformitarianism? Who proposed the idea?
Changes in the earth are from continuous and uniform processes. Proposed by James Hutton
What is gradualism? Who proposed the idea?
The current features of the earth are from slow accumulated changes. Proposed by James Hutton
Who was Thomas Malthus? What did he do?
Published an essay on the principle of population. Populations grow exponentially while resources grow linearly, so populations will eventually start fighting over scarce resources
Who was Jean Baptiste Lamarck? What did he do?
Considered to be the father of evolution, as he was the first one to propose a coherent idea of evolution even though his ideas were wrong. Proposed like changes acquired during an organism’s lifetime could be passed on to their offspring (the giraffes), and multiple spontaneous generation events
How did Lamarck’s idea of multiple spontaneous generation events explain try to explain the origins of species.
The simplest life forms were constantly being created from abiotic materials, and they eventually became more complex organisms. Each species originated individually, and things simply transformed from one species into another instead of going extinct. No branching of lineages occurred and there were no common ancestors
Who was Georges Cuvier? What did he do? What concept did he propose?
French naturalist, zoologist, and palaeontologist. The father of comparative anatomy. Proposed catastrophism
What is catastrophism? Who proposed the idea?
The features of the earth were shaped by a massive catastrophe, and the places on the earth were repopulated by immigration. Proposed by Georges Cuvier
Who was Charles Lyell? What did he do?
A Scottish geologist, he supported that the earth was very old, and gradualism and uniformitarianism. He made Hutton’s ideas accessible to a wider audience and discovered deep time
Who was Charles Darwin’s family?
He came from a wealthy family. Grandfather was Erasmus Darwin, a famous physician, philosopher, physiologist. His father was Robert Darwin, a doctor and businessman
