Chapter 15 Theory of Evolution 15-1 History of Evolutionary Thought Notes continued… View the following 4 slides of notes and copy notes into your notebook.

Contributors to Darwin Before Darwin’s time, most scientist thought the earth and it’s organisms were permanent and unchanging Earth was thought to only be thousands of years old How old is it actually? About 4.5 Billion years old Geologists started to identify the actual age of the earth by looking at the rock strata: rock layers Oldest layers on bottom

Contributors French anatomist Georges Cuvier Reconstructed fossils Some organisms in the past differed greatly form any living species “sudden changes” result of catastrophism >> caused extinction English geologist Charles Lyell Uniformitarianism the theory that changes in the earth's crust during geological history have resulted from the action of continuous and uniform processes French biologist Jean Baptiste Lamarck INHERITANCE OF ACQUIRED CHARACTERISTICS is the idea that an organism can pass on characteristics that it acquired during its lifetime to its offspring

Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics