Evolutionary Scientist Timeline Evolutionary Theory Evolutionary Scientist Timeline

Francesco Redi (1668) First scientist to disprove spontaneous generation by showing that flies come from other flies

John Needham (1745) Scientist who attempted to prove microorganisms are formed by spontaneous generation.

Lazzaro Spallanzani Scientist who disproved John Needham’s experiment

Louis Pasteur (1859) French scientist who conducted an experiment that disproved spontaneous generation once and for all. Considered the Father of Microbiology and Immunology

Thomas Malthus Scientist who studied population growth and introduced the concept that organisms produce too many offspring for their environment and some will die. “Struggle for existence”

Jean-Baptiste de Lamark French scientist who believed organisms were continually created from nonliving matter and that organisms become more complex over time. Inheritance of Acquired Traits

Charles Darwin Father of Evolution – his trip on the HMS Beagle to the Galapagos Islands greatly influenced his ideas and lead to the publication of Of the Origin of Species

Charles Lyell Geologist who published Principles of Geology stating that the changes on the surface of the Earth occurred over a long period of time.

Alfred Russel Wallace Scientist who had concluded the same ideas about evolution as Darwin.

Oparin-Haldane Scientists combined ideas of how life on Earth could have formed gradually from nonliving chemicals.

Miller and Urey Scientists who created an experiment to prove that organic molecules could form from gases present when the Earth formed.

Sidney Fox Scientist who conducted experiments to see if functioning proteins could form spontaneously, formed protocells.