Before Darwin: Early Ideas about Evolution Ch. 10.1 pp. 298 – 301
What processes are responsible for life’s unity and diversity?
KEY CONCEPT: There were ideas about biological and geological change prior to Charles
Darwin that set the stage for Darwin’s Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection.
Vocabulary:
1. Evolution (p. 298) –
2. Species (p. 298) –
3. Fossils (p. 300) –
4. Catastrophism (p. 301) –
5. Gradualism (p. 301) –
6. Uniformitarianism (p. 301) –
7. What contribution to understanding evolution did each of the following early naturalist’s
make?
a. Carolus Linnaeus –
b. George Buffon –
c. Erasmus Darwin –
d. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck –
8. What ideas in Lyell’s theory of Uniformitarianism were important for evolutionary theory?
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9. What are key differences between the theories of gradualism and catastrophism?
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10. Why are the ideas that Earth undergoes change and is billions of years old important for
evolutionary theory?
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11. How can you use the concept of genetic inheritance to disprove Lamarck’s idea of
inheritance of acquired characteristics?
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