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Born Nov. 29, 1627, Black Notley, Essex, Eng.—died Jan. 17, 1705, Black Notley

Ray was one of the very first scientists (in the modern world) to study classification and botan. He was interested in plants for which he started to develop a cñassification system. He also studied fossils, recognizing that they once were life forms.

Most importantly he was the first to form a defined concept of the term of “species” and established it as the base for taxonomy.

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Born May 23, 1707, Råshult, Småland, Sweden—died January 10, 1778, Uppsala

Naturalist and explorer

From an early age, he had an interest in botany which is why he ended up studying the use of plants, minerals, and animals in medicine at the University of Lund and then at Uppsala University. From 1732 to 1735, Linnaeus traveled throughout Sweden, particularly in Lapland and northwest Sweden, in order to record and collect information on the country’s natural resources. After his return in the autumn of that year, he gave private lectures in botany and mineral assaying. He became a well-known professor and influential scientist.

IMPORTANT WORK:

He is known for his work in taxonomy: the science of identifying, naming, and classifying organisms (plants, animals, bacteria, fungi, and more).

He created a hierarchical classification of the three kingdoms of nature: stones, plants, and animals. Each kingdom was subdivided into classes, orders, genera, species, and varieties.

Linnaeus also created a system known as the binomial system, where each species of plant and animal is given a genus name followed by a specific name (species), with both names being in Latin. For example: Homo sapiens.

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Born September 7, 1707, Montbard, France—died April 16, 1788, Paris

Naturalist

He was the eldest of five children and was born into a wealthy family. His father, Benjamin-Francois Leclerc, was a local official in Burgundy, while his mother, Anne-Christine Marlin, also came from a family of minor state officials. In 1723 he began the study of law because of his father’s wishes. Nonetheless, in 1728  he went to the University of Anglers to study medicine and botany as well as mathematics.

IMPORTANT WORK:

1749 to 1804: He published 44 volumes of a series called Histoire Naturelle

1778: He was the first to reconstruct geological history in a series of stages, in Époques de la nature

He proposed a new theory in the formation of the planets and estimated that the process of planet-forming and their eventual cooling took about 70,000 years.

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Born Dec. 12, 1731, Elston Hall, Nottinghamshire, Eng.—died April 18, 1802, Breadsall Priory, Derby, Derbyshire

British physician, poet, and botanist

Darwin studied classics and mathematics at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and then engaged in three years of medical training at the University of Edinburgh.

He is known for being the grandfather of naturalist Charles Darwin and of biologist Sir Francis Galton.

IMPORTANT WORK:

He helped transform British manufactory: with windmills, carriages, and other mechanical devices, as well as promoting canal systems and new agricultural techniques.

He established the first theories of evolution in Zoonomia.

1769: He said that organisms have evolved through time. Furthermore, all organisms share a common ancestor, what he termed a "single filament", formed in water by natural processes.

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Born August 1, 1744, Bazentin-le-Petit, Picardy, France—died December 18, 1829, Paris

Biologist

1761: He started with a military career as a soldier in the south of France during which he gained interest in botany. When he came back home he claimed he could create a system for identifying the plants of France that would be more efficient than any current system. In 1778: Lamarck designed the Flore française specifically for the task of plant identification. 1783 - 1792: Lamarck published three large botanical volumes for the Encyclopédie méthodique (“Methodical Encyclopaedia”).  He became a well-known Naturalist and continued to publish works.

IMPORTANT WORK:

1800 Biological evolution theories (Lammarck’s Theory):

Species change by the need to adapt to the environment, and this process of change often depends on the use (or lack of) of certain body parts.

The simplest forms of plant and animal life were the result of spontaneous generation. Life became successively diversified.

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Born August 23, 1769, Montbéliard —died May 13, 1832, Paris, France

Zoologist

1784: He studied anatomy and dissection at Académie Caroline in Württemberg’s capital, Stuttgart. After, Cuvier started writing about marine invertebrates and became a professor of zoology at The Museum of Natural History in Paris.

His work on comparative anatomy made him excellent at reconstructing animals from fossils. This way, Cuvier helped the world understand life forms that had gone extinct. Also, he did important research with rock strata.

Cuvier also identified and classified animals according to their anatomy.

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Developed by Georges Cuvier

Cuvier found interesting evidence in the succession of fossils. He noticed several gaps where all evidence of life would disappear and then abruptly reappear again after a notable amount of time. He hypothesizes these gaps to be mass extinction events.

Catastrophism says that: Natural history has been punctuated by catastrophic events that altered the way life developed and rocks were deposited. This means that volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, and other natural events are the ones that cause mass extinction gaps, as well as shape landscapes.

It never explains the cause of the catastrophic events which is why the theory includes the implication that the forces acting on the Earth must have changed periodically throughout Earth’s history.

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Gradualism says that: Large changes are actually the culmination of very small changes that build up over time.  The theory also states that during these long periods, there are often transitions between the different states that make the process more continual.

Geological processes are long, slow changes that occur over thousands or even millions of years. The geologic time scale shows the gradual changes over the different eras since Earth began.

There are many transitional fossils that show structural adaptations of species as they transform into new species.

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Based on the ideas of James Hutton and George Lyell

Uniformitarianism says that: Changes in the earth's crust throughout history have resulted from the action of uniform, continuous processes that are still occurring today.

It was suggested that the earth was much older and that processes occurring in the present were the same as those that had operated in the past and that will operate in the future.

“the present is the key to the past.”

In other words, great changes are due to geological processes that add up over time.

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Born November 14, 1797, Kinnordy, Forfarshire, Scotland—died February 22, 1875, London

His father, a naturalist, shared with him books on every subject, including geology, since then Charles had an interest in the subject. His first scientific hobby was collecting butterflies and aquatic insects, and later this instinct for collecting and comparing led to important discoveries.

Lyell entered Oxford University pursuing classics, mathematics, and geology, spending travels conducting geological studies. In 1819 he earned a B.A. with honors and moved to London to study law. He continued to study geology with great outdoor expeditions such as analyzing the sediments in freshwater lakes. He became a well-known geologist in the scientific community.

He used all his observations to build and test theories.

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Born June 3 1726 Edinburgh, Scotland - died March 26 1797

Scottish farmer, chemist and naturalist

He studied medicine and chemistry in the University of Edinburgh, as well as in Paris and the Netherlands. Hutton spent his life in farms observing the effects of wind and weather from which he started to build his geology theories. He theorized that Earth was much older than what they had considered and that geological changes come from a continuous cycle of the sea washing rock and sediments that eventually surface uo because of volcanic processes. This is what led him to uniformatirism.

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Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution 

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Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution 

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Born February 12, 1809, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England—died April 19, 1882, Downe, Kent

Naturalist

From a young age, Darwin had an interest in nature and analyzing species which led him to study medicine in 1809 at the University of Edinburgh. However, he transferred to Cambridge University to study taxidermy.  In 1831: he embarked on a five-year trip that encouraged him to collect and observe different species.

Theory of Natural Selection: The fittest individuals (meaning with the characteristics best suited for the environment) are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over time, the features that made them more likely to survive will become more common within the population. Darwin greatly based this theory on his findings of finches in the Galapagos Islands.

1859: He published On the Origin of Species.

1871: Darwin made publications that theorized humans descended from Apes.

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Takes Darwin’s and Mendel’s work into consideration

Formed during the early mid-century

The formation of new species is due to the genetic changes in previous species. It contributes to the changes in allele frequencies to gene recombination, mutation, genetic drift, natural selection, and isolation. It gave a new definition of evolution.

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