Concept

History of life

Overview

processes by which organisms evolved on Earth

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

Possible passages

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Hist. U. States”, vol. iv, page 468) has ably given the arguments for and against the hypothesis of the development and modification of species: he seems to lean toward the side of change. The “Vestiges of Creation” appeared in 1844. In the tenth and much improved edition (1853) the anonymous author says (page 155): “The proposition determined on after much consideration is, that the several series of animated…
Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
Close in meaning to History of life; the term itself is not named.
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Hence, there will from time to time arise an increased heterogeneity both of the Earth’s flora and fauna, and of individual races included in them. Omitting detailed explanations, and allowing for the qualifications which cannot here be specified, it is sufficiently clear that geological mutations have all along tended to complicate the forms of life, whether regarded separately or collectively. That multiplication…
Herbert Spencer, First Principles
Close in meaning to History of life; the term itself is not named.
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It is a tenable hypothesis that the successively-higher types fossilized in our successively-later deposits, indicate nothing more than successive migrations from pre-existing continents to continents that were step by step emerging from the ocean--migrations which necessarily began with the inferior orders of organisms, and included the successively-superior orders as the new lands became more accessible to them…
Herbert Spencer, The Principles of Biology, Volume 1
Close in meaning to History of life; the term itself is not named.
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Related ideas

Opposing perspectives

The New York Times

Place in the tradition

Part of Libertarianism.

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