PreDarwinian Theories of Evolutioin

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Pre-Darwinian Theories of Evolutioin
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Creationism

• James Ussher
• 17th Century
• Separate and independent creation of every
  species
• Life forms do not change from one generation to
  the next

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Great Change of Being

• Earth and life are only about 6000 years old
• God created infinite and continuous series of
  life forms
• All life forms were created in their present
  forms
• Prevalent theory of 17th and 18th century

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Carolus Linnaeus

• Early biologist
• Precise descriptions of nature
• No analysis or interpretation
• Classification system
• Binomial nomenclature

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Leclerc

• Living things change through time
• Result of environmental influences or chance
• Earth was at least 75,000 years old

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Erasmus Darwin

• Believed in evolution
• Did not understand how

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Lamarck

• Idea about the process of evolution
• Constant striving for perfection
• Ultimate goal- humans
• Evolution occurs when organism uses body part in
  new way
• giraffe

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Cuvier

• Discredited Lamarck
• Extinction of ancient animals
• Catastrophism
• Sudden natural catastrophies led to abrupt
  changes in species

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Lyell

• Discredited catastrophism
• Slower, progressive changes
• uniformitarianism