Evolutionary thought, the recognition that species change over time and the perceived understanding of how such processes work, has roots in antiquity. With the beginnings of modern biological taxonom
The tree of life as depicted by Ernst Haeckel in The Evolution of Man (1879) illustrates the 19th-century view of evolution as a progressive process leading towards man.
The Greek philosopher Anaximander of Miletus argued that humans originated from fish.
Plato (left) and Aristotle (right), a detail from The School of Athens (1509 – 1511) by Raphael
Augustine of Hippo, shown in this sixth-century AD Roman fresco, wrote that some creatures may have developed from the "decomposition" of previously existing organisms.
Lamarckism
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Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use o
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck repeated the ancient folk wisdom of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
The long neck of the giraffe is often used as an example in popular explanations of Lamarckism. However, this was only a small part of his theory of evolution towards "perfection"; it was a hypothetical illustration; and he used it to discuss his theory of heredity, not evolution.
Edward Drinker Cope
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard tried to demonstrate Lamarckism by mutilating guinea pigs.