BIOL 121 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Hms Beagle, Robert Fitzroy
Document Summary
Todays biologist believe the central proportions of evolution: That all living things are descended from a common ancestor. That all living things can change and give rise to new species. Darwin: on the origin of species by means of natural selection . Proposed that over 1000"s of million years, species arose from other pre-existing species by a process of descent with modification" or evolution. A supernatural being (god) created each type of organism individually at the beginning of time and that all modern organisms are unchanged descendants of those ancestors (fixity of species) Plato: (427-347 bc); philosophy was fixity of species. Small variations ma occur between individuals, but species remain unchanged. To conclude that life forms could be arranged on a ladder of increasing complexity. First to use comparative anatomy to develop a system to classify animals. Proposed that earth any 6000 years old (idea fit well with religious teachings) Suggested that living things do change through time.
