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James Ussher
James Ussher also known as bishop James Ussher calculated the creation day of earth. He thought that the world was close to 6000 years old and it was created October 23, 4004 B.C at nine o’ clock in the morning. In 1650, he published a book called The Annals of the World where he talked about major events from the time of when earth was created (Pierce, April 5 2013). -
John Ray
John Ray came with the concept of genus and species, although Linnaeus used the system to give humans a name: Homo sapiens. Ray also put us in the order Primates making it seem like we human beings were a part of nature and scientifically that meant that we were closer to primates. In 1660, Ray published Catalogue of Cambridge Plants where he explained his observations about processes that happen to plants (Lankester, April 5 2013). -
Carl Linnaeus
Carl Linnaeus is often known as the “Father of Taxonomy.” In 1735, he issued the Systema Naturae which consisted of his idea of classification of living things. He developed the hierarchical naming structure which showed the species and its closest relatives. Carl said that all living things could be classified into Kingdom ,Phylum, Class, Order, Family, Genus, and Species. Linnaeus used binomial nomenclature to name organisms (Hagberg, April 5, 2013). -
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon was a French naturalist that believed that life forms do actually change over time. Buffon stated this idea in his 44-volume Histoire Naturelle in 1749. In his book, he described known things in the world along with comparing humans and apes. He pointed out that the common ancestry between the ape and man. Other books that Buffon wrote declared that earth was a lot older than 6000 years old (Milner, April 5 2013). -
James Hutton
James Hutton was a Scottish naturalist who is known as the founder of modern geology. He noticed that the history of earth could be concluded by understanding how processes of sedimentation and erosions work. Hutton was the one who came up with the theory of uniformitarianism in 1785. His theory was based on the slow natural processes of landscapes (Mathez, April 5 2013). -
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin, a respected physician, was the grandfather of Charles Darwin. He considered the fact that evolution occurred for any living organism.Darwin stated his thoughts, ideas, and theories in Zoonomia or The Laws of Organic Life from 1794-1796. A poem called The Temple of Nature also expressed his theories. His hypothesis explained that life evolved from a
common ancestor (Futuyma, April 5 2013). -
George Cuvier
George Cuvier was a French naturalist that proposed the idea of catastrophism in 1796. He said that earth experiences harsh events like volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts, and etc. George supposed that the catastrophes only affected certain areas, and that these areas would need to be repopulated by neighbouring species (Adams, April 5 2013). -
Thomas Malthus
Thomas Malthus was an English economist who is very well known because of his theories on population growth. He wrote An Essay on the Principle of Population in 1798 outlining his thoughts and ideas on population. Part of his research included the relationships among populations and food supply. Malthus articulated that the population of humans and animals grows much faster than the rate of food production (Thomas Malthus, April 5 2013). -
Jean Baptiste Lamarck
This French naturalist discussed his ideas about changes in species over time in his book Philosophie Zoologique in 1809. He mentioned part of his theory was on inheritance of acquired traits. He even proposed that body parts that were not used would vanish. Body parts that were used would become both bigger and stronger. This proposal was called use and disuse (Packard, April 5 2013). -
Mary Anning
Mary Anning was and still is known as the “the greatest fossilist the world ever knew.” In other words she was a remarkable palaeontologist that had a significant contribution to the palaeontology field. She had this astounding skill of gathering fossils. Mary Anning is given acknowledgement to finding the first ichthyosaur fossils at the age of 12. From a scientific point of view, her next big discovery after the ichthyosaur fossils was the first plesiosaur in 1821 (Mary Anning, April 5 2013). -
Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell was a British lawyer and geologist who came up with his theory with accordance to James Hutton’s theory. Lyell’s first and most famous book was called Principles of Geology which came in three volumes. They were written between the years 1830 and 1833 and it established on the idea of uniformitarianism. This was when geological processes that operated at certain rates in the past, still will operate the same way today (Wyhe, April 6 2013). -
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin was an English naturalist who made a contribution to the theory of evolution. In 1831, he travelled to the Galapagos Islands and other places where he made many observations. Darwin stated his theory in the book On the Origin of Species in 1859 where he described the fact that life has changed before, and it is continuing to change. He believed that natural selection is what enabled organisms to compete, survive, and reproduce (Darwin and Natural Selection, April 6 2013). -
Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace was one of the 19th century’s extraordinary intellectuals. He helped discover the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1858 due to his own research. When Wallace came up with his idea, decided to send it to Darwin. Charles Darwin was completely shocked that both of their theories were so similar. While Darwin published his book, Alfred Russel continued to focus his attention on biogeography (Beccaloni, April 6 2013). -
Gregor Mendel
Gregor Mendel was a monk whose theory of heredity was correct. This idea of his was published in 1866 but unfortunately it did not get recognized till long after his death until 1990. He came up with his idea through cross breeding of Pisum sativum (pea plants) and discovered that some characteristics show up in the offspring without merging the parent traits (Mendel's Genetics, April 6, 2013). -
Walter Sutton
Walter Sutton was the one who assisted with the development of the chromosomal theory of heredity. He said that genes from the traits are placed on the chromosomes. Sutton mentioned that chromosomes comply with Gregor Mendel’s rule. In 1902, he wrote a historic paper which talked about the experiment he conducted with grasshopper chromosomes. In his experiment, he noticed that chromosomes were in pairs that would separate by meiosis (Crow, April 6 2013). -
Stephen Gould
Stephen Gould was an American palaeontologist whose theory was about punctuated equilibrium which he developed with Niles Eldredge in 1972. It proposes the fact that when a new species is created through evolutionary change, the process does not happen slowly at a constant rate of over MYA. Instead, it happens in periods of a thousand years pursued by long periods where there is little change (Stephen Jay Gould, April 6 2013). -
Bette Korber
Bette Korber and her team have been researching about the evolution of an antibody in a patient that has HIV. Information about the generation of this antibody could help with coming up with a vaccine. Once the HIV virus gets involved with the patient's body, it creates mutations of itself specified for just that person. They are trying to find out exactly how the antibody can be of use (HIV Vaccine Development, April 7 2013). -
Works Cited
Adams, A.B. “Georges Cuvier.” 1969. Web. 5 April 2013. < ucmp.berkeley.edu>
Beccaloni, George. “Alfred Russel Wallace.” The Alfred Russel Wallace Website. 2008. Web. 6 April 2013. <wallacefund.info>
Crow, Ernest. “100 Years Ago: Walter Sutton and the Chromosome Theory of Heredity.” Genetics Society of America. 2002. Web. < genetics.org>
“Darwin and Natural Selection.” Web. April 6 2013. <anthro.palomar.edu> -
Works Cited Continued
Futuyma, Douglas J. “Erasmus Darwin.” 1986. Web. 5 April 2013. < ucmp.berkeley.edu>
Hagberg, K. “Carl Linnaeus. 1952. Web. 5 April 2013. < ucmp.berkeley.edu>
“HIV Vaccine Development.” Science Daily. 2013. Web. 6 April 2013. < sciencedaily.com> -
Works Cited Contined...
Lankester, E. “Memorials of John Ray.” Web. 5 April 2013. < ucmp.berkeley.edu>
“Mary Anning.” Web. 5 April 2013. <palaeo.gly.bris.ac.uk>
Mathez, Edmond. “James Hutton: The Founder of Modern Geology.” Earth Inside Out. 2000. Web. 5 April 2013. < amnh.org> -
Works Cited Last Page
Milner, Richard. “Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon.” 1990. Web. 5 April 2013. < ucmp.berkeley.edu>
Packard, A.S. “Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.” 1901. Web. 5 April 2013. < ucmp.berkeley.edu>
Pierce, Larry. “Ussher and the Date of Creation.” Answers. 2006. Web. 5 April 2013. <answersingenesis.org>
“Thomas Malthus.” BBC. Web. 5 April 2013. <bbc.co.uk>
Whye, John. “Charles Lyell (1797-1875) Gentleman Geologist.” 2002. Web. 6 April 2013. <victorianweb.org>
