19th century[edit]

Portrait of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

 1802. Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (French, 1744–1829) wrote Recherches sur l'Organisation

des Corps Vivants and Philosophie zoologique (1809). He was an early evolutionist and
organized invertebrate paleontology. While Lamarck's contributions to science include work in
meteorology, botany, chemistry, geology, and paleontology, he is best known for his work in
invertebrate zoology and his theoretical work on evolution. He published an impressive seven-
volume work, Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres ("Natural history of animals without
backbones"; 1815–1822).
 1813–1818. William Charles Wells (Scottish-American, 1757–1817) was the first to
recognise the principle of natural selection. He read a paper to the Royal Society in 1813 (but
not published until 1818) which used the idea to explain differences between human races. The
application was limited to the question of how different skin colours arose.
 1815. William Kirby and William Spence (English) wrote An Introduction to Entomology (first
edition in 1815). This was the first modern entomology text.
 1817. Georges Cuvier wrote Le Règne Animal (Paris).
 1817–1820. Johann Baptist von Spix (German, 1781–1826) and Carl Friedrich Philipp von
Martius (German) conducted Brazilian zoological and botanical explorations (1817–1820). See
their Reise in Brasilien auf Befehl Sr. Majestät Maximilian Joseph I König von Bayern in den
Jahren 1817 bis 1820 gemacht und beschrieben (3 vols., 1823–1831).
 1817. William Smith, in his Strategraphical System of Organized Fossils (1817) showed that
certain strata have characteristic series of fossils.

1825 plate from Fauna Japonica Philipp Franz von Siebold

 1817. Thomas Say (American, 1787–1834) was a brilliant young systematic zoologist until

he moved to the utopian community at New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825. Luckily, most of his
insect collections have been recovered.
 William Lawrence (English, 1783–1867) published a book of his lectures to the Royal
College of Surgeons in 1819. The book contains a remarkably clear rejection
of Lamarckism (soft inheritance), proto-evolutionary ideas about the origin of mankind, and a
forthright denial of the 'Jewish scriptures' (= Old Testament). He was forced to suppress the
book after the Lord Chancellor refused copyright and other powerful men made threatening
remarks. His subsequent life was highly successful.
 1824. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is founded at
London.
 1825. Gideon Mantell (English) wrote "Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil
reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate Forest, in Sussex" (Phil. Trans. Roy, Soc. Lond., 115: 179–
186), the first paper on dinosaurs. The name dinosaur was coined by anatomist Richard Owen.
 1826. The Zoological Gardens in Regent's Park is founded by the Zoological Society of
London with help from Sir Thomas Raffles. It opened its "zoo" to the public for two days a week
beginning April 27, 1828, with the first hippopotamus to be seen in Europe since the ancient
Romans showed one at the Coliseum. The Society will help save bird and animal species from
extinction.
 1826–1839. John James Audubon (Haitian-born American, 1785–1851) wrote Birds of
America (1826–1839), with North American bird portraits and studies. See also his
posthumously published volume on North American. Quadrupeds, written with his sons and the
naturalist John Bachman, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845–1854) with 150
folio plates.