Pre-Darwinian Theories (palomar.edu)

Question 1

• strongly reinforced the traditional Judeo-Christian version of creationism
• counting the generations of the Bible and adding them to modern history

Answer 1

James Ussher

Question 2

What date did James Ussher fix the creation

Answer 2

October 23, 4004 B.C

Question 3

• held that God created an infinite and continuous series of life forms, each one grading into the next, from simplest to most complex, and that all organisms, including humans, were created in their present form relatively reently and thaty they have remained unchanged since then
• hierarchical structure of all matter and life, thought by medieval Christianity to have been decreed by God

Answer 3

Great Chain of Being

Question 4

Great Chain of Being sequence

Answer 4

• God
• Angels
• Humans
• Animals
• Plants
• Minerals

Question 5

• apparently believed that he was just revealing the unchaning order of life created by God
• his 180 books are filled with precise descriptions of nature, but he did little analysis or interpetation

Answer 5

Carolus Linnaeus

Question 6

Most important contribution of Carolus Linnaeus to scince

Answer 6

logical classification system in his book, Systema Naturae

Question 7

who actually developed the concept of genus and species in the late 1600s

Answer 7

John Ray

Question 8

Linnaeus used the system of John Ray to name humans to __ __

Answer 8

Homo sapiens

Question 9

Homo sapiens meaning

Answer 9

wise men

Question 10

Order of humans

Answer 10

Primates

Question 11

“living things do change through time”

Answer 11

George Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon

Question 12

what is George Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon speculation as to how living things change through time

Answer 12

result of influences from environment or even chance

Question 13

how old did Comte de Buffon believe the earth was

Answer 13

at least 75,000 years old

Question 14

book of Buffon

Answer 14

Histoire Naturelle

Question 15

• believed that evolution has occurred in living things, including humans, but only had fuzzy ideas about what might be responsible for this change
• grandfather of Charles Darwin

Answer 15

Erasmus Darwin

Question 16

scientific publication of Erasmus Darwin

Answer 16

Zoonomia or Laws of Organic Life

Question 17

what did Erasmus Darwin suggest about the earth and life on it

Answer 17

evolving for millions of ages before the commencement of the history of mankind

Question 18

• believed that evolution occurs when an organisms uses a body part in such a way that it is altered during its lifetime and this change is then inhertied by its offspring
• believed that evolution was mostly due to the inheritance of acquired characteristics as creatures adapted to their environment
• first evolutionist who confidently and very publicly stated his ideas about the processes leading to biological change

Answer 18

Jean-Baptiste Chevalier de Lamarck

Question 19

• first scientist to document extinctions of ancient animals
• rejected the idea that their existence implied that evolution had occured – he dogmatically maintained the “fixity” of species
• discredit Lamarck’s theory

Answer 19

George Cuvier

Question 20

what did George Cuvier advocate

Answer 20

theory of catastrophism

Question 21

Earth’s history was dominated by catastrophic events that shaped the structure and types of life on Earth

Answer 21

Theory of catastrophism

Question 22

• conclude that Cuvier’s catastrophism theory was wrong
• believed that there primarily have been slower, progressive changes
• documented the fact that the earth must be very old and that it has been subject to the same sort of natural processes in the past that operate today in shaping the land

Answer 22

Charles Lyell

Question 23

book of Charles Lyell stating that natural processes in the past still operate today in shaping the land

Answer 23

Principles of Geology

Question 24

forces that shape the land according to Charles Lyell

Answer 24

• erosion
• earthquakes
• glacial movements
• volcanoes
• decomposition of plants and animals

Question 25

Lyell provided conclusive evidence for what theory

Answer 25

theory of uniformitarianism

Question 26

who originally developed the theory of uniformitarianism

Answer 26

James Hutton

Question 27

• natural forces now changing the shape of the earth’s surface have been operating in the past much the same way
• present is the key to understanding the past

Answer 27

theory of uniformitarianism

Question 28

• strongly disagreed aout how the earth got to be the way it is today
• both rejected the idea of biological evolution

Answer 28

• George Cuvier
• Charles Lyell