1. Descent with Modification: A Brief History Carolus Linnaeus (father of taxonomy, 1707-1778) – arranged organisms by genus and species largely by physical characteristics. Called a binomial system the naming of organisms is still used today. – Inference - species that shared similar characteristics were created at similar times and did not necessarily share a common ancestor. » Ironically it was the detailed work of Linnaeus that led Darwin to connect the dots of evolution.

2. Paleontology The branch of paleontology largely began around the time of Darwin as Georges Cuvier (1769-1832) began noticing that as the strata (layers of the Earth) change going deeper into Earth, fossils become more dissimilar to present day organisms. – Cuvier introduced the idea of catastrophism to explain the differences between strata. It was his belief the changing Earth caused mass extinctions of organisms. Also known and punctualism.

3. Descent with Modification: A Brief History – Scottish geologist James Hutton (1726-1797) proposed the concept of gradualism. Gradualism simply states that since the processes that shape the Earth occur slowly, the organisms that occupy it must also change at the same rate. – Charles Lyell (1797-1875) proposed the theory of uniformitarianism. stated that the process that changed Earth's strata are still at work today and that these ecological pressures are what cause a change in the species. – These ideas greatly influenced Darwin to publish his famous papers.

4. Descent with Modification: A Brief History Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) published on the theory of use and disuse to explain the difference in the fossil record. – He believed that if a physical trait was useful to an organism it would be passed on and that if it was not it would not. Although he lay the ground work to what would become evolution, he missed the mark as he believed that acquired traits were passed on and not necessarily genetic frequencies.

5. What Now? Malthus (1798) predicted that if the populations of the Earth continued to grow unchecked that we would eventually run out of resources. – Reasons for incorrectness of theory: not all offspring survive – Density dependent inhibitory behavior – Resource management

6. Threats due to overpopulation