PCB 4674 Lecture Notes - Lecture 43: Carl Linnaeus, Mary Anning, Heredity
14 Apr 2018
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A chain of existence with god on top, man above woman, animals above plants. He formed a system of naming and established hierarchies. It refers to groups of organisms that a taxonomist judges to be cohesive taxonomic units, such as species or orders. The science of describing, naming, and classifying species of living or fossil organisms. He argued that natural laws were required for explanation of natural phenomena. Proposed the earth formed according to the laws of physics. He calculated that we had an old earth (>70k years) Wrote about heredity, that offspring tend to resemble parents in organisms. (no understanding of genetics). Organic matter became seeds and eggs which became animals/plants. Found extinct dragons -- aka flying reptiles pterosaurs. He realized that rocks formed through imperceptibly slow changes. Envisioned a perpetual-motion machine passing through regular cycles. He surveyed england for canal/railroads -- he had to observe exposed underlying geology beneath the hills the canals ran through.
