Charles Lyell & Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

By: Will Fraleigh

Charles Lyell Charles Lyell was born in 1797, and

died in 1875

Charles Lyell was a lawyer and Geologist, known for his sizable contributions to the field.

He formulated a theory called Uniformitarianism with the help of James Hutton.

James Hutton James Hutton was a Scottish geologist,

physician and naturalist born in 1726

He is known popularly as “The father of modern geology”

He was responsible for sizable contributions to the field of geology such as: Uniformitarianism & Plutonism

Uniformitarianism This was a theory created by

Charles Lyell and James Hutton, a Geologist like Lyell

Geological changes are slow continuous rather than catastrophic, the small changes would start to build over time into much greater changes in the land.

Contrary to the current (at that time) belief that the earth was shaped quickly by violent events.

Key Points of Uniformitarianism

This was one of the first theories of geological change that suggested earth was more than 6000 years old

When James Hutton first came up with the theory it wasn’t recognized for some time until Charles Lyell made revisions and publicized it more.

To this day many of the key points of this theory still hold true, especially the aspects of geological change.

Charles Darwin & Charles Lyell

Charles Darwin was also influenced greatly by Charles Lyell and his theory of uniformitarianism.

He thought that even though the theory was expressed about geological features that it could also hold true to the evolution of populations.

This turned out to have some truth in it. Because just as land living organisms change very slowly in small steps.

Uniformitariansim Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9iuiBPc0tE

Note: He sounds like Crocodile Dundee…

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was

a Biologist born in 1744

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck outlined his ideas about changes in species over time by comparing there current forms with their fossil forms

Inheritance of acquired characteristics

Lamarck hypothesized that the organisms would become progressively better adapted to their environments. Ex: The giraffe getting a progressively long neck in order to feed off trees.

Inheritance of acquired characteristics: the idea that characteristics acquired doing an organisms lifetime can be passed on to its offspring

Acceptance of the Theory

Many people at the time didn’t accept Lamarck’s theory because they believed that species stayed the same and never changed.

This was because at the time there was very little knowledge of cell biology and how adaptive they really were.

This belief would be more extensively disproved by Charles Darwin.

Charles Darwin and Lamarck

Charles Darwin, who created the generally accepted theory of evolution by natural selection found there to be a lot of truth in what Lamarck had to say.

He eventually used a slightly altered version of Lamarck’s theory as he created the theory of evolution.

There is no doubt that Lamarck greatly influenced Charles Darwin and contributed a great deal towards what we now know as the theory of evolution.

Lamarck Videohttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBdxDBqfH

c&feature=related

Bibliography "AboutDarwin.com - Who was Darwin."AboutDarwin.com - Home Page. N.p., n.d.

Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://www.aboutdarwin.com/darwin/WhoWas.html>.

 

Mathoz, Edmond A.. "James Hutton: The founder of modern Geology." amnh.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <www.amnh.org/education/resources/rfl/web/essaybooks/earth/p_hutton.html>.

 

Neymen, Greg. "Old Earth Creation Science, Catastrophism or Uniformitarianism?." Creation Science - Old Earth Ministries. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://www.oldearth.org/catastrophism.htm>.

 

"Nonsense in schoolbooks: 'The Imaginary Lamarck'." The Textbook League. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://www.textbookleague.org/54marck.htm>.

 

Smith, William . "Uniformitarianism: Charles Lyell." Understanding Evolution. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2012. <http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/a

Video citations  

Seconds, Science in . "Science in Seconds - Lamarckian Evolution - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HBdxDBqfHc&feature=related>.

 

 

Schist, ALoadOf. "An introduction to uniformitarianism - YouTube." YouTube. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9iuiBPc0tE>.

 

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