Erasmus+Darwin

= = =Erasmus Darwin= . 1731-1802 Erasmus Darwin was one of the intellectual leaders of England's industrial age, and was a leading naturalist that rejected supernatural myths and superstition and embraced evolution. Darwin wrote the Zoonomia, a book including a large number of facts about animal classification and diseases along with ideas on evolution. "some birds have acquired harder beaks to crack nuts, as the parrot. others have acquired harder beaks adapted to break harder seeds, as sparrows. others for the softer seeds of flowers, or the buds of trees, as of finches...All of which seem to have been gradually produced during many generations by the perpetual endeavour to supple the want of food" (Darwin Zoonomia). Darwin had a profound understanding of the fundamental principles concerning almost every scientific discipline. Although Darwin never thought of natural selection, he argued that all life could have one common ancestor, though he struggled with the concepts of a mechanism for this descent. Like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Darwin believed that the use or disuse of parts could make them grow or shrink and that the unconscious striving by an organism was responsible for its adaptation. Darwin believed that evolution has occurred in all living things, including humans. Darwin had begun to think about the importance of sexual selection to continuing changes within species. "The final cause of this contest among males seems to be, that the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species, which should thence become improved" (Darwin). Darwin recorded accurate observations on subjects such as geology, meteorology, neurology, photosynthesis and psychology. =Works Cited= Erasmus Darwin | Romantic Natural History. (n.d.). //Dickinson Blogs//. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://blogs.dickinson.edu/romnat/2011/06/07/erasmus-darwin/ Erasmus Darwin. (n.d.). //Frankenstein: The Pennsylvania Electronic Edition//. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://knarf.english.upenn.edu/Darwin/darwinErasmus Darwin - English physician scientist and philosopher. (n.d.). //Derbyshire UK - Guide to Derbyshire and Peak District//. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://www.derbyshireuk.net/darwin.htmlGod.. (n.d.). Pre-Darwinian Theories of Evolution. //ThinkQuest : Library//. Retrieved January 18, 2013, from http://library.thinkquest.org/C004367/eh1