evolution is the process that modern organisms have descended from ancestral organisms

signifigant changes in genetic makeup of species over time due to evolution

theory is a well supported explanation of phenomena

scientific debates over specific details on how life evolved

biologists do believe that the idea of evolution is true, ex. paleontology and geography

EVOLUTIONARY IMPORTANT FIGURES :

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1701-1788)

Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778)

Erasmus Darwin (1731-1802)

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Most Europeans thought that all living things were created in their present forms and could not and had not changed

Aristotle : classified all living organisms hierarchically in his great chain of being (or great scala naturae)

Buffon : anatomy focused, studied animal structures related to functions, confused about some features that have “no purpose” (called vestigals), notes similarities between humans and apes

Linnaeus : developed taxonomy, proposed that life changed over time

Erasmus Darwin : suggested life evolved from a single original source, proposed that life changed over time

Lamarck : student of Buffon, first person to make a mechanism, inheritance of acquired characteristics and use and disuse, his mechanism was proven wrong throughout history

Use and disuse : structures used by people became stronger, and structures that werent use became smaller and weaker

Inheritance of acquired characteristics : individuals could pass down characteristics they had during their lives, epigenetics explores that environmental impacts can be passed down to their offspring

Cuvier - paleontology : the study of fossils

Cuvier discovered that Fossils of simple organisms are found in all depths of fossil deposits, fossils of complex organisms are found in shallower depths, rock layers contain fossils of species aswell

Lyell - geology : study of earths structure

Lyell believed in uniformitarianism which means, geological change is slow and gradual, and that changes are constant,

scientists thought the world was only a few thousand years old, fossils proved that wrong

Charles Darwin : linked ideas from biology, paleontology and geology to come up with a mechanism of Natural selection, Went on a trip for 5 years and collected thousands of samples and maintained detailed journals and observed 3 patterns of diversity

1. species vary globally, but different species look/behave similarly if they have a similar environment (ex. African ostrich and Australian emus)

2. species vary locally, similar organisms that occupy different habitats look different (ex. Galapagos turtles and Darwins finches)

3. species varied over time (ex. glyptodont is extinct, yet armadillos look similar)

4. artifical selections of pigeons (traits can be passed on and variations occured within species)

Uniformitarianism supports the theory of slow geological change (connected the idea of gradual change to living organisms)

Malthus (mathmatician) believed in competition ecologically, which connects the idea of all species

Alfred Wallace developed the mechanism of natural selection independently, studies patterns in South America and Asia, shared notes with Darwin and found same ideas