While proposing his theory, Darwin was influenced by-
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Answer:
Darwin was influenced by other early thinkers, including Lamarck, Lyell, and Malthus. Darwin was also influenced by his knowledge of artificial selection. Wallace's paper on evolution confirmed Darwin's ideas.
Explanation:
Answer:
Darwin was influenced by other early thinkers, including Lamarck, Lyell, and Malthus. Darwin was also influenced by his knowledge of artificial selection. Wallace's paper on evolution confirmed Darwin's ideas.
Earlier Thinkers Who Influenced Darwin
Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) was an important French naturalist. He was one of the first scientists to propose that species change over time. However, Lamarck was wrong about how species change. His idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics is incorrect. Traits an organism develops during its own life time cannot be passed on to offspring, as Lamarck believed.
Charles Lyell (1797–1875) was a well-known English geologist. Darwin took Lyell's book,Principles of Geology, with him on the Beagle. In the book, Lyell argued that gradual geological processes have gradually shaped Earth’s surface. From this, Lyell inferred that Earth must be far older than most people believed.
Thomas Malthus (1766–1834) was an English economist. He wrote an essay titled On Population. In the essay, Malthus argued that human populations grow faster than the resources they depend on. When populations become too large, famine and disease break out. In the end, this keeps populations in check by killing off the weakest members.
Artificial Selection
These weren’t the only influences on Darwin. He was also aware that humans could breed plants and animals to have useful traits. By selecting which animals were allowed to reproduce, they could change an organism’s traits. The pigeons in Figure below are good examples. Darwin called this type of change in organisms artificial selection. He used the word ‘‘artificial’’ to distinguish it from natural selection.