BIOL 3200 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Uniformitarianism
Document Summary
Darwin agreed with his view that geological changes occurred gradually over a large amount of time. He (cid:271)elie(cid:448)ed all a(cid:374)(cid:272)ie(cid:374)t (cid:272)ha(cid:374)ges produ(cid:272)ed i(cid:374) the earth"s surfa(cid:272)e o(cid:272)(cid:272)urred through natural factors similar to the ones that operate today (uniformitarianism) Natural changes on earth were not the result of supernatural catastrophes of the bi(cid:271)le"s book of genesis. Lyell follo(cid:449)ed fa(cid:373)ous geologist"s ja(cid:373)es hutto(cid:374)"s theories. Said the earth was billions of years old, and had been sculpture by the action of sea, rain, volcanoes and earthquakes. This would have allowed enough time for evolution to occur. If the living world was formed by factors still at work today, it should be possible to study these evolutionary forces in action. In the first 3 decades of the 19th century, they found that fossils followed a certain progressive order, from simplest to most complex forms.
