HONORS 232 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte De Buffon, Erasmus Darwin
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Lecture one: adaptations, a trait that an organism has that helps it to live and survive, no natural explanation before darwin, only folklore, pre darwin views, stasis i. ii. Fixity of species (christianity): god created species as they are now. Great chain of being (aristotle): all life forms exist in fixed hierarchy with humans at the top: the earth is young i. Archbishop james ussher (1581-1656) analyzed genesis and decided the. Earth was created around 4004 bc: there was no time for evolution, comte de buffon (1707-1788) i. ii. Keeper of the king"s garden, saw animals" relation to environment. Thought that animals changed in relation to their environment: erasmus darwin (1731-1802) i. ii. Believed that species could change over time e. Species evolve during their lifetime and then pass it on. Example: giraffes stretch their neck to reach food, it gets longer, their children have long necks: charles lyell (1797-1875) i.
