8 People Who Influenced and Inspired Charles Darwin

Jean Baptiste Lamarck

A botanist and zoologist who proposed that humans evolved from lower species through adaptations over time. he realized the connection between traits and the envonment the species lives in. theory of inherited aquired traits (giraffe and long neck from stretching) 1744-1829

Thomas Malthus

An economist whose ideas on population growth influenced Darwin's theory of natural selection. population growth will inevitably outstrip food production, leading to poverty, famine, and other societal problems unless population growth is controlled 1766-1834

Comte de Buffon

A mathematician and naturalist who hypothesized that unique wildlife species adapted to their environments over time. 1707-1788

Alfred Russel Wallace

A naturalist who independently developed the theory of natural selection around the same time as Darwin. 1823-1913

Erasmus Darwin

Charles Darwin's grandfather, who shared ideas about species change through his poetry. 1731-1802

Charles Lyell

A geologist whose theory of uniformitarianism influenced Darwin's understanding of slow, gradual changes in Earth and life. theory that allowed darwins theory to work (the earth was old) 1797-1875

James Hutton

A geologist who proposed that the same geological processes observed today were responsible for Earth's features in the past. actualism, indirectly inspired darwin from inspiring lyell about process that would prove the earth is much older than expected and give enough time for daarwins theorys to be true. 1726-1797

Georges Cuvier

A paleontologist who opposed evolution but whose ideas about extinction and species classification influenced Darwin. catastrophism and paleontology found that when something died out, something similar moved into its place. 1769-1832

Charles Darwin

Lived from 1809 to 1882. He is best known for his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he detailed in his book 'On the Origin of Species' published in 1859. He traveled on the HMS Beagle during his voyage that informed his research and ideas.