Evolution was around since the dawn of man, but we discovered it’s existence later on. It had pretty much been proven as fact for decades before people truly began to understand it. Evolution and the biosphere have been subject to scrutiny by religious fools and evangelical zealots, but that didn’t stop the progress for humanity’s insatiable appetite for knowledge. Evolution is fact, period, but who came up with it you ask? The great minds of the past are few and far between, but there are still so many of them to list, but we have a few here for you to take a glance at. This is the 10 most amazing and famous evolutionary biologists and their discoveries.
The 10 Most Amazing and Famous Evolutionary Biologists
1. Sewall Wright
Do you see alright? Sewall Green Wright was an American geneticist known for some revolutionary work on evolutionary theory. He earned a degree in zoology and is a co-founder of population genetics and leading the way to the development of modern synthesis. Wright is also known for other genetic feats like path analysis and understanding genetic shift. He helped with the understanding of inbreeding and gene frequencies among various populations from a combination of natural selection, mutation, migration and genetic drift.
2. Ronald Fisher
Sir Ronald Aylmer Fisher was a British statistician, eugenicist and geneticist who laid the ground work for modern statistical science. Fisher had a keep interest in evolutionary theory, so like anyone would, tried to combine math with biology. He is famous for combining mathematics with Mendelian genetics and natural selection and for creating a revival Darwinism in the early 20th century. This was known as the modern synthesis, and he was considered the one great Darwinian successor. Fisher is also known for his other works in race, sexual selection, and population genetics.
The 10 Most Amazing and Famous Evolutionary Biologists
3. Herbert Spencer
Herbert Spencer was an English biologist, anthropologist, sociologist and philosopher. He is best known for his hypothesis on social Darwinism, an idea whereby superior physical force shapes nature and history. Spencer, a polymath, was an early proponent of advocate of evolution. He came with an idea that the individual is over society and science is over religion. Spencer is also know for his expression “survival of the fittest.” After reading Darwin’s book, he came to conclusions about how evolution and natural selection extended into sociology and ethics. He is known for helping create an all-encompassing conception of evolution.
4. J.B.S. Haldane
John Burdon Sanderson Haldane was a British-Indian geneticist, biometrician and physiologist. He is best known for his works in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. Haldane helped pave the way for science, it’s importance, and the further understanding of population genetics and evolution. He would later go on include statistics in biology and went on to become a founder of neo-Darwinism.
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His works include abiogenesis and the primordial soup theory, the foundation for the concept of the chemical origin of life. He also established gene maps, willing his body to science, and coined terms for cloning and ectogenesis, Haldane’s dilemma was another one of his later shot down theories that stated that was a limit to speed that evolution could happen beneficially. Haldane later become something of an interesting character by becoming a Marxist and joining the British Communist Party, being a socialist and atheist as well.
The 10 Most Amazing and Famous Evolutionary Biologists
5. Ernst Mayr
Ernst Mayr was a German-American biologist and science historian known for his works in taxonomy, population genetics and evolution. Mayr’s works contributed to a number of revolutionary conceptualizations, including: systematics, modern evolutionary synthesis of Mendelian genetics, biological species concept, and Darwinian evolution. He was also well known as a tropical explorer, much like everyone else on the list, and his works in ornithology and the philosophy of biology.
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Mayr is often considered the Darwin of the 20th century, receiving his PhD in ornithology and going on numerous expeditions to New Guinea and Soloman Islands before moving to the US and working at the American Museum of Natural History. He became professor of zoology at Harvard and wrote over one hundred papers on avian taxonomy, including new species and subspecies. Mayr was also an author of books, including Systematics and the Origin of Species, and later worked at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology.
6. Thomas Henry Huxley
Thomas Henry Huxley was an English biologist and anthropologist who is well known for his contributions to evolution and comparative anatomy. Known as Darwin’s bulldog for his staunch advocacy of Darwin, Huxley coined the term “agnosticism” and advocated for people to have an agnostic viewpoint. Huxley is known for his organizational efforts, lectures and writings have helped science into the modern day.
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Huxley won a free scholarship and went school, earning praise for his work in physiology and organic chemistry. He later went to serve in the navy, where he furthered his research and understanding of biology, including algae, sea anemones, and various other creatures. During a trip to the Great Barrier Reef, some of his discoveries led the way to understanding how humans came from fish. Later returning to England with great success, especially from the Royal Society of London, receiving numerous commendations, but later feeling dissatisfied, especially from depression.
The 10 Most Amazing and Famous Evolutionary Biologists
7. Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, science historian and evolutionary biologist responsible for many of today’s understandings in science and evolution. Gould, along with Niles Eldredge, created the theory of punctuated equilibrium, theorizing that evolution, in addition to Darwins’s findings, for species happened in rapid bursts, based on their existence as fossils, then stabilized for a period of time.
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Gould was also very well known as a writer, polemicist and evolutionary popularizer. Similar to Dawkins, Gould loved to put people in their place when it came to understanding reality. He wrote a collection of novels explaining his findings and was also the president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
8. Richard Dawkins
Clinton Richard Dawkins is a British ethologist and evolutionary biologist. He is known for his work in the understanding of genetics; it is related to how the gene is the driving force of evolution. Dawkins is an atheist, and thus advocates for this in his work constantly in spite of the controversy surrounding it. He is often cited for his book The Selfish Gene Theory. It was published in 1976, which he explains any misconceptions related to Darwinism. Dawkins explains that genes are the basis for evolution rather than a species or individual level. This deepens the understanding of the small world and what Darwin already explained through natural selection.
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He also created the concept of the meme, the cultural gene, which further describes an affect on and understanding of human social evolution and how evolution happens differently among species. Dawkins has numerous other books, products and publications, using the intricacy of the eye as an example of increasing sophistication through evolution via selective pressures as opposed to random factors. Dawkins is also known for his vociferous stance against religion and the superiority of atheism over theism or deism. Mentioned in his book The God Delusion, Dawkins explains that, by the laws of probability, an omnipotent creator is precluded.
The 10 Most Amazing and Famous Evolutionary Biologists
9. Alfred Russel Wallace
Alfred Russel Wallace was an English naturalist, biologist and geographer with great influence. He, along with Darwin, prompted the understanding of evolution and modern biology. He contributed to the theory of evolution by way of natural selection. His contribution even slightly predated Darwin’s, although they came to their conclusions separately. Beyond his contributions to evolution, Wallace’s interests included many other things. They included socialism, spiritualism, island biogeography, life on mars, and land naturalization, among many others.
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Wallace was often a social critic and had strong opinions on ethical, social and political values of human life. Growing up, Wallace was surveying land maps for his brother’s business, becoming an apprentice to his land in 1837. Because of the strict laws, exacting the amount of land was required, leaving Wallace well equipped to understanding geography. Wallace ended up documenting much of his experience seeing the squalor of poor people. He also later on did lectures throughout Europe and the US. He would end up going to the Malay Archipelago from 1854-1862. This is where he ended up coming to many of the same conclusions Darwin did.
10. Charles Darwin
Charles Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist, and evolutionary biologist known for his massive contributions to evolutionary biology. The development of this scientific theory related to evolution via natural selection is still used to this day; it became accepted as fact in all communities of science. Darwin essentially unified all of the life sciences with understanding of the struggle of existence. Darwin was sent for medical studies at the University of Edinburgh and later went for studies at Cambridge.
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Often cited as one of the greatest scientific minds, he wrote “On the Origin of Species”. It is a deeply influential book helping explain the diversity of life. His 5 year voyage on the HMS Beagle helped give him great insight into understanding life on earth. It also strengthened him as a geologist and biologist. Darwin dropped his medical studies, despising anatomy, wanting to take on natural biology instead. He was also an agnostic, and he often struggled with any kind of religious belief, especially in his formative years. Darwin, along with Russell, jointly published the same ideas in 1858. This ended up prompting his book publication, and thus his numerous contributions continue.
The 10 Most Amazing and Famous Evolutionary Biologists
Honorable Mentions: Motoo Kimura, Richard Lewontin, W.D. Hamilton and Theodosius Dobzhansky
