THEORY OF EVOLUTION TIMELINE changes which could be passed on to the

next generation.
1201-1274: Nasīr al-Dīn al-Tūsī 1818: Robert Edmond Grant and Étienne
–develops a theory of evolution with Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire
organisms gaining differences through –further develop the ideas of Jean-Baptiste
adapting to their environments. He suggests Lamarck & Erasmus Darwin to propose that
that organisms which gain beneficial new plants and animals had a common
features quicker have advantages over evolutionary starting point (a view wrongly
others and are more variable. discredited by Richard Owen).

1735: Carolus Linnaeus 1830: Charles Lyell

–Swedish botanist, develops the modern –establishes the basic chronology of the
hierarchical classification system. Tertiary period and its relationship to rock
strata. He popularizes the doctrine of
1749: Georges Buffon uniformitarianism; that the features of the
–The French naturalist envisages a Earth can be better explained as the
constantly changing world in which species long-term result of short-term geological
change over time (but rejects the idea that phenomena.
this change could lead to new species).
1831: Charles Darwin
1773: James Burnett, Lord Monboddo –Charles Darwin (1809-1882) sets off on
—suggests that humans descended from HMS Beagle.
primates and that creatures can transform
their characteristics in response to the 1845: Alexander von Humboldt
environment over long time intervals. –pioneers the study of ecology and initiates
a new focus on the interactions between
1794: Erasmus Darwin species and their environment.
–proposes that all warm-blooded animals
arose and differentiated from a single form, 1856: Neanderthal discovery
and anticipates the idea of natural selection. –Neanderthal skull and bones are found in
Neander valley in Germany.
1795: Georges Cuvier
–draws attention to the fact that the 1858: Alfred Russel Wallace
geological record is not a continuous one. –independently conceives the theory of
He demonstrates the fact of extinction with evolution by natural selection and
studies of fossil mammals, and believes the co-publishes with Darwin on the subject.
extinctions to have occurred in a series of
giant floods. 1859: Charles Darwin
–publishes On the Origin of Species.
1809: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
–proposes that while simple forms of life
were spontaneously generated, they were
driven up a ladder of complexity over time.
Use or disuse of organs and traits cause
1860: Oxford Evolution Debate 1909: Wilhelm Johannsen
–Proponents and opponents of Darwin & –Danish biologist, provides the basic
Wallace’s theories clash in the famous terminology for genetics: ‘genes’ as
Oxford Evolution Debate; Thomas Henry particulate units of heredity; ‘genotype’ as
Huxley (1825-1895) and Samuel the genetic constitution of an organism; and
Wilberforce (1805-1873) butt heads in a ‘phenotype’ as the organism’s physical
public debate, which both sides consider a characteristics.
victory.
1910: Thomas Hunt Morgan
1866: Gregor Mendel –establishes the chromosomal theory of
–publishes Experiments in Plant heredity. Morgan began to breed and
Hybridisation, establishing some basic laws conduct experiments with the common fruit
of the genetic inheritance of discrete traits. fly, Drosophila melanogaster, which initiated
Mendel’s paper remained obscure for about the field of experimental genetics. Morgan
35 years, but in 1900 it was rediscovered. confirmed Mendelian laws of inheritance
and the hypothesis that genes are located
1868: Ernst Haeckel on chromosomes.
–applies evolutionary theories to
embryology. Subsequently, his work would 1918: Ronald Fisher
provide early foundations for the field of –produces the paper The Correlation
evolutionary developmental biology or ‘evo between Relatives on the Supposition of
devo’. Mendelian Inheritance, showing how the
continuous variation measured by
1871: Charles Darwin biometricians could be the result of the
–publishes The Descent of Man, and action of many discrete genetic loci.
Selection in Relation to Sex.
1925: Raymond Dart
1893: August Weissman –publishes in Nature a description of the
–publishes his germ-plasm theory, which Taung child, a fossil skull from Taung near
emphasises the separation of the germ line Johannesburg, of the
and soma. species Australopithecus africanus.

1896: James Mark Baldwin 1937: Theodosius Dobzhansky

–suggests that adaptation can arise and –publishes Genetics and the Origin of
evolve from plasticity without invoking Species.
inheritance of acquired characters in A New
Factor in Evolution, a concept later known 1942: Conrad Hal Waddington
as the Baldwin Effect. Similar ideas were –proposes the evolutionary process of
also presented earlier or around the same genetic assimilation in Canalization of
time by Douglas Spalding, Conwy LLoyd Development and the Inheritance of
Morgan and Henry Osborn. Acquired Characters, followed by several
other important papers and books,
including The Strategy of
Genes. His famous epigenetic landscape as
a metaphor for gene regulation has 1984: Charles Sibley and Jon Ahlquist
become reprinted and re-interpreted ever –demonstrate that chimpanzees are more
since. closely related to humans than to gorillas.

1942: Julian Huxley 1990-2003: Human genome sequenced

–publishes Evolution: The Modern –HG sequenced and assembled.
Synthesis.
2003: Mary Jane West-Eberhard
1942: Ernst Mayr –publishes Developmental Plasticity and
–publishes Systematics and the Origin of Evolution, which focuses on the role of
Species in which he presents his influential environmentally generated variation in
‘biological species concept’. evolution and speciation.

1950: Radiometric dating developed 2010: Neanderthal genome sequenced

–RD techniques developed during this –Richard Green and colleagues publish a
decade. draft sequence of the Neanderthal genome,
suggesting that that Neanderthals and
1953: DNA structure discovered modern humans interbred.
–Francis Crick (1916-2004), James Watson
(1928-) and Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958) 2018: The Present
discover the chemical structure of Exciting evolutionary biology research
deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and show that continues to this day.
it meets the unique requirements for a
substance that encodes genetic information.

1960: mRNA discovered

–Sydney Brenner (1927-), Francis Crick
(1916-2004), Francois Jacob (1920-2013)
and Jacques Monod (1910-1976) discover
mRNA.

1964: William Hamilton

–publishes his papers introducing inclusive
fitness theory.

1974: Discovery of ‘Lucy’

–Paleontologists Don Johanson (1943-) and
colleagues find ‘Lucy’, an almost complete
Australopithecine female at Hadar, Ethiopia.

1975: Allan Wilson and Marie-Claire King

–Berkeley biochemists show that humans
share nearly 99% of their DNA with
chimpanzees.