Carla Mooney - Evolution: How Life Adapts to a Changing Environment with 25 Projects

1735:
Carolus Linnaeus publishes Systema Naturae, which includes the common system of naming species with two names.

1764:
The fossilized bones of a large animal later named Mosasaur are found in a quarry in the Netherlands.

1809:
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French naturalist, publishes his theory of evolution.

1811:
Mary Anning discovers the fossilized remains of an ichthyosaur in England. Ichthyosaurs are giant marine reptiles that look like fish and dolphins.

1812:
Paleontologist Georges Cuvier argues the distribution of fossils in the rock record proves fossils occur in the order of creation: fish, amphibians, reptiles, and mammals.

1818:
William Charles Wells conveys his principle of natural selection among human populations and suggests that African populations are selected for their resistance to local diseases.

1818:
tienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire develops the idea of homologous parts and argues that parts such as a bats wing and a mans arm have the same evolutionary origin, but serve different functions.

1831:
Darwin begins a five-year voyage on the HMS Beagle . He studies differences among mockingbirds in the Galapagos Islands, his first examination of the evolution of species.

18381839:
Darwin develops his theory of natural selection. He argues that favorable traits become more common in successive generations.

1848:
A skull that would come to be known as Neanderthal Man is discovered in Gibraltar, England.

1856:
Fossils found at Neanderthal in the Neander Valley near Dusseldorf, Germany, are identified as an early variant of Homo sapiens .

1859:
Darwin publishes On the Origin of Species.

1866:
Gregor Mendel publishes Experiments in Plant Hybridization, which becomes a foundational work for the study of biology.

1871:
Darwin publishes The Descent of Man and applies evolution to humans.

1886:
Two complete Neanderthal skeletons are found in a cave near Spy, Belgium. The skeletons challenge the idea that Neanderthals are modern humans.

1891:
Scientists discover remains on the island of Java that would be later classified as Homo erectus.

1907:
Chemist Bertram Boltwood measures the ratio of isotopes of uranium and lead in a mineral and lays the groundwork for radiometric dating techniques.

1931:
Scientist Sewall Wright concludes that random drift, or chance fluctuation of gene populations, is a significant factor in evolution.

1936:
Robert Broom discovers the first adult Australopithecus at Sterkfontein, South Africa, and establishes it as an early hominin.

1953:
James Watson, Francis Crick, and Maurice Wilkins publish the first accurate model of DNA structure, based on Rosalina Franklins pioneering image of DNA taken in 1952.

1960:
Louis and Mary Leakey discover Homo habilis at Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. Homo habilis is believed to be the first species of the genus Homo.

1967:
Scientists publish a time scale for human evolution, placing the split between chimpanzees and humans at about 5 million years ago.

1974:
Donald Johanson recovers the skeletal remains of a female hominin dated to 2.8 million years ago. His team describes her as a new species, Australopithecus afarensis, and nicknames the female hominid Lucy.

1984:
The study of evolution at the DNA level begins.

1987:
Scientists develop a genealogical tree that suggests all human DNA can be traced back to a common African ancestor.

1994:
In Ethiopia, American paleoanthropologist Tim D. White and colleagues discover a human ancestor, Ardipithecus ramidus, dating to 4.4 million years ago.

2004:
Homo floresiensis, a type of dwarf human, is discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores and is announced as a new species.

2015:
Scientists discover the fossils of a new species of early human, which they name Homo naledi.