Development of

Evolutionary
Thought
 Learning
competency

Trace the development of evolutionary thought

 oBJECTIves

• Discover the scientists that contributed to the development of evolutionary thought.

• Have knowledge on how these theories contributed on the development of modern
science.
• Other achievement of the following scientists that also helped shape today’s
knowledge in biology.
Father of Taxonomy

CAROLUS LINNAEUS (1707 - 1778)

• pioneered the concept of sexual reproduction in
plants.
• published Systema Naturae in 1735.("System of
Nature"),
• :Kingdom-Phylum-Class-Order-Family-Genus-
Species.

All of his findings came from his research. Specimens

are given a two-word Latin binomial name. As a result,
every modern Linnaeus' classification system is the
foundation of all classification systems.
THOMAS ROBERT
MALTHUS (1766 – 1834)
• An influential English cleric, scholar, and
philanthropist.In the domains of economics and
demography, economist.
• In his work An Essay on the Principle of
Population,1798, he argued that human population
should be limited.

Populations have the ability to outgrow the resources

available to them. When a community's population
grows too large, sickness and hunger strike.As a result,
these calamities restrict population size by decimating
the weakest members of society.
GEORGES CUVIER (1769-1832)

• developed a theory of catastrophism

• He also classified animals according to their body
plan.
• His studies about fossils gave rise to the science of
paleontology.

His work was useful in interpreting the remains of fossil

animals and relating
them to living species.
Father of Taxonomy
(1726-1797)

JAMES HUTTON
• His Theory on Gradualism made a significant
contribution to the understanding of the
geological processes that shaped the Earth.

• He recognized that the Earth was extremely old

and noticed that there was no need for global
catastrophes to shape the surface of the Earth.

• He also hypothesized that gradualism is an

ongoing process of erosion, sedimentation and
some other geological features of the soil.
CHARLES LYELL (1797- 1875)

• He observed ancient raised seabed’s

separated by lava flows, and became
convinced that Hutton's model of gradual
geological change was correct.

• Collected a large amount of supporting

evidence for uniformitarianism and set this
out in the "Principles of Geology", a book
that had influence on Darwin’s work about
evolution.
(1774–1829)

JEAN BAPTISTE DE
LEMARCK
• Theory of Use and Disuse hypothesized that
organism can reshape or alter its traits
depending on the importance of those traits to
the organisms. An organism may develop a
trait that is useful or loose that trait if not often
used.

• Theory of Acquired Traits hypothesized that

acquired traits of an organism that were
adaptive to the environment can be passed on
to its offspring as inherited traits.
(1809-1882)

CHARLES DARWIN
he describes how species evolved by Natural Selection:

• through Artificial Selection some offspring have variations that

occur by chance and that can be inherited. In nature offspring with
certain variations that might be more likely to survive will might have
difficulty for existence and reproduce. If it happens, they would pass
their favorable variations to their offspring.

• through Natural Selection, fitness is a characteristic for an

organism’s relative ability to survive and produce fertile offspring.
Nature selects the variations that are most functional.

• speciation occurs when the selection, artificial or natural, change

domestic species over time. He thought that if a species changed
enough, it might evolve into a new organism/species.

• through Common descent, species no matter how diverse shared

common ancestry.
 Darwin and Jean Baptiste de Lamarck both
agreed that life evolved from fewer, less
complicated organisms to several, additional
complicated organisms.

Moreover, each thought that life had modified

step by step over time and was still dynamical,
that living things amendment to be higher suited
and tailored to their environments, which all
organisms are connected.
Father of Heredity (1822-1884)

GREGOR MENDEL
• Carried out experiments on dominant and
recessive traits of genes that proved Darwin’s
concept of natural selection.

• He wrote about crossbreeding peas which

established how heredity works.

His experiment on pea plants showed those

organisms which inherit dominant genes were more
likely described the fittest organism over organism
which inherit recessive trait