Early Evolutionists

George-Louis LeClerc

• 1707-1788
• Among first to propose that present species are different from those that existed long ago.

James Hutton

• 1726-1797
• A geologist who proposed that Earth was created by slow, gradual processes

William Smith

• 1769-1797
• Studied fossils in rock layers and found that the same fossils showed up in the same layers

Jean Baptiste Lamarck

• 1744-1829
• First to propose that species change over time
• Theory of use/disuse
• Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Thomas Robert Malthus

• 1766-1834
• Wrote that populations of species continue to grow until it is checked by famine and disease