Charles Lyell

He was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural

causes in explaining Earth's history.
Lyell argued that the formation of Earth's crust took place through countless
small changes occurring over vast periods of time, all according to known
natural laws. His "uniformitarian" proposal was that the forces molding the
planet today have operated continuously throughout its history.

Lyell was born into a wealthy family, on 14 November 1797.He was the eldest
of ten children.
He went to Oxford to study law and mathematics but turned to geology after
being introduced to Hutton’s work. He attended Robert Jameson’s lecture in
Edinburgh and visited Gideon Mantell at Lewes, Sussex.

In 1830, Lyell wrote a set of books summarizin

geology. In it, he advanced the idea that the Ea
time. Importantly, he argued that geological pr
were all occurring now. Lyell also discussed th
evidence that animals changed over time. Lyell
evolved. Instead, species somehow were replac
the Earth went through cycles and perhaps, in a
gone to be replaced again by reptiles.

He recognized that many species had become extinct and been replaced by
others. Thus, by the time Charles Darwin became interested in natural
history, many of the concepts crucial for his thinking had been developed.

1 August 1744 – 18
Jean Baptiste Lamarck December 1829

He is one of the best known early evolutionists. He took a great conceptual

step and proposed a full-blown theory of evolution

Lamarck was the youngest of 11 children in a family of the lesser

nobility. Lamarck embarked on a military career in 1761. As a soldier
garrisoned in the south of France, he became interested in collecting plants.
An injury forced him to resign in 1768, but his fascination for
botany endured, and it was as a botanist that he first built his scientific
reputation.

Lamarck understood that evolution was evident, and his theory of a

mechanism for evolution preceded Darwin’s Theory of Evolution
Through Natural Selection.
Lamarck’s theory was Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics. He put forth
the idea that characteristics that developed throughout a lifetime were passed
on to the offspring. In other words, if you were a tiny 100 pond person, and
you worked-out and exercised and became a muscular body builder,
according to Lamarck, your offspring would be more-likely to be muscular.
He also thought that if someone lost a limb, their offspring may have a
smaller or stunted corresponding limb. Lamarck’s hypothesis was soon
proven false.

Alfred Russel Wallace

Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British
naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is
best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural
selection; his paper on the subject was jointly published with some of Charles
Darwin’s writings in 1858.This prompted Darwin to publish On the Origins of
the Species.

He co-developed the theory of natural selection and evolution with Charles

Darwin. He played a big role and collected more than 100,000 insects, birds
and animal specimens. By, 1858 Wallace had come to the conclusion that
living things evolve. Alfred did not have the same advantages in life as
Charles Darwin. He managed to save enough money to fund a trip to South
America, with the intention of collecting and selling specimens to wealthy
private collectors.

Wallace came up with the idea that the best adapted organisms in a
population would survive to breed, passing on their adaptations to their
offspring. He worked this insight up into a paper that he sent to Darwin,
asking for his comments and assistance in getting it published

Georges Cuvier 23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832

Cuvier, was a French naturalist and zoologist he is sometimes referred to as

the “Founding Father of Paleontology”. Cuvier was a major figure in natural
sciences research in the early 19th century and was instrumental in
establishing the fields of comparative anatomy and paleontology through his
work in comparing living animals with fossils. He became the most
influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the early 19th century.

Cuvier developed his theory of catastrophes. Accordingly, fossils show that

animal and plant species are destroyed time and again by deluges and other
natural cataclysms, and that new species evolve only after that.