January 28, 2015 Traditional Views of Organisms and the Earth Aristotle (340 BC) -Each species fit a level of complexity like a rung of a ladder -He called it "scalae naturae" (scale of nature) -His philosphy coincides with bible saying all creatures were designed by God and therefore perfect as is. Carl Linnaeus (1740's) Father of Taxonomy -Taxonomy is the naming and classifying of organisms =Binomial Nomenclature (two name system of Genus and species - Not a ladder but more like a branched tree -still followed belief that God mad all creatures at once and they are perfect BUT that he made groups of similar creatures January 28, 2015 Cuvier (1790"s) Catastrophism -He found fossils at different depths and found the fossils that were deeper were more unlike the current species than those near the surface. -He claimed that catastrophes caoused them to go extinct and they were replaced by organisms nearby that were already here -Still does not allow for new speciation to occur Hutton (1790's) Gradualism -He dealt with geological features Valleys were formed from the carving of rivers Mountains were formed from the uplifting from earthquakes -He believed that change takes place by slow and continuous processes *Challenges date of the earth (originally set at 6000yrs.old) January 28, 2015 Lyell (1820's) Uniformitarianism -He stated that the same geological processes occuring today happened all through history *Also challenges history of the earth to be older than 6000 yrs. as determined from the bible. Lamarck (1820's) -First to propose mechanism for evolution Lamarckian Evolution -Most famous for being WRONG!!! -He stated that changes developed over one's lifetime could be passed on to one's offspring. ex. Giraffe neck-parents stretch for food in times of drought and offspring inherit developed trait January 28, 2015 Come up with your own examples of something changing in its lifetime and what the outcome of the offspring would look like (need to give a reason why the trait changed in parent and what it does for the offspring to make them better adapted to environment) Timeline before Darwin 340 BC. to 1800 AD--> God created all creatures perfect and they haven't changed since their creation The earth is about 6000 years old 1800 Hutton and Lyell challenge the age of the earth 1820 Lamarck proposes his theory of evolution 1854 Wallace writes to Darwin about his views on evolution 1854 Darwin presents his findings with overwhelming evidence