BLG 567 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Thomas Robert Malthus, Gregor Mendel, James Hutton
Document Summary
1744-1829: jean-baptiste de lamarck: first person to use the term evolution, first to introduce inheritance of acquired characteristics". Individuals change within their lifetime in response to environment and pass those traits on to offspring: proposed the idea of spontaneous generation". 1830: charles lyell: used geological proof to determine that the earth was older than 6000 years, demonstrated that the present is the key to the past. 1844: darwin writes essay on the origin of species. 1865: gregor mendel (founder of the modern science of genetics) publishes papers on how inheritance works. 1: some of the variation between individuals is heritable that is, has a genetic. Evolution: the change over time in the heritable characteristics of a population or species: herbert spencer called it survival of the fittest. Fitness: used to describe the success of individuals in the process of natural selection.