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It describes the development of the cosmos, the Earth, living things, and human society through purely naturalistic mechanisms, without any reference to supernatural involvement. De rerum natura would influence the cosmological and evolutionary speculations of philosophers and scientists during and after the Renaissance.
Ernst Walter Mayr (/ ˈ m aɪər / MYRE, German: [ɛʁnst ˈmaɪɐ]; 5 July 1904 – 3 February 2005) [1] [2] was a German-American evolutionary biologist.He was also a renowned taxonomist, tropical explorer, ornithologist, philosopher of biology, and historian of science. [3]
However, natural selection remained controversial as a mechanism, partly because it was perceived to be too weak to explain the range of observed characteristics of living organisms, and partly because even supporters of evolution balked at its "unguided" and non-progressive nature, [28] a response that has been characterised as the single most ...
The paleoanthropologist Trenton Holliday states that "Darwin is rightly considered to be the preeminent evolutionary scientist of all time". [ 223 ] By around 1880, most scientists were convinced of evolution as descent with modification, though few agreed with Darwin that natural selection "has been the main but not the exclusive means of ...
Cuvier's 1799 paper on living and fossil elephants helped establish the reality of extinction. In later editions of the book, Darwin traced evolutionary ideas as far back as Aristotle; [7] the text he cites is a summary by Aristotle of the ideas of the earlier Greek philosopher Empedocles. [8]
Although he was not the first thinker to advocate organic evolution, he was the first to develop a truly coherent evolutionary theory. [10] He outlined his theories regarding evolution first in his Floreal lecture of 1800, and then in three later published works: Recherches sur l'organisation des corps vivants, 1802. Philosophie zoologique, 1809.
Alfred Russel Wallace OM FRS (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was an English [1] [2] [3] naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. [4] He independently conceived the theory of evolution through natural selection; his 1858 paper on the subject was published that year alongside extracts from Charles Darwin's earlier writings on the topic.
Charles Darwin in 1868. Darwinism is a term used to describe a theory of biological evolution developed by the English naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) and others. The theory states that all species of organisms arise and develop through the natural selection of small, inherited variations that increase the individual's ability to compete, survive, and reproduce.