The person that I chose that I thought had a positive influence on Darwin’s theory was Georges Cuvier. Cuvier’s research, produced knowledge that would ultimately support Darwin’s theory of evolution, unfortunately he did not realize it. Cuvier was the first to demonstrate that the different strata of rock in the Paris basin each had it’s own mammal fauna. He also showed that the lower a stratum was, the more different its fossil animals were from species living in the present.
Evolution was described by Darwin as the outcome of a simple algorithm that gets repeated again and again over the course of a very large number of generations in an environment of scarce resources. This algorithm states that each generation has a variation, and the inheritance of that variation, and natural selection. This means that the offspring inherit much of their parents; traits but not perfectly, they are slightly different from their parents. All living creatures need roughly the same kind of resources in order to survive and reproduce are said to belong to a certain biological or ecological niche.
Cuvier demonstrated this in his research with the different strata of rock. Cuvier could be called the founder of comparative anatomy, and it was his knowledge in this field that accounted for his well-known and almost uncanny ability to reconstruct animals from only fragments of fossil remains. Cuvier showed that fossil mammoths differed from any such creatures presently living. Cuvier contributed to Darwin’s work because he studied animals, which is what Darwin studied. I think that Darwin could have came up with his theory without the ideas of Cuvier.
Darwin’s work had a tremendous impact on religious thought. Many people strongly opposed of his idea of evolution because it conflicted with their religious convictions. Darwin avoided talking about the theological and sociological aspects of his work, but other writers used his theories to support their own theories about society.
Cited:
No comments:
Post a Comment