"The very first place which I examined, namely St. Jago in the Cape de Verde Islands, showed me clearly the wonderful superiority of Lyell's manner of treating geology" -Charles Darwin, autobiography
Before leaving on the Voyage, Darwin received the first volume of Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell and published by John Murray (who published Origin of Species) in 1830. The other volumes were forthcoming but the first already influenced Darwin. Lyell was a enthusiastic proponent of uniformitarianism - the belief that the laws of nature were constant through time. For geology this meant that processes we observe today (rates of erosion, results of earthquakes, etc) were the same as those working in the past. The uniformitarian view of geology was not widely accepted but was increasing in popularity as the theists, with their laws of nature, were showing scientific success in all areas of science.
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Two Bald Eagles flew by this morning. I'll take that as a good sign. Teaching phylogentics to ecology course and hopefully showing how some life history traits evolve. Might be interesting.
"The very first place which I examined, namely St. Jago in the Cape de Verde Islands, showed me clearly the wonderful superiority of Lyell's manner of treating geology" -Charles Darwin, autobiography
__________
Two Bald Eagles flew by this morning. I'll take that as a good sign. Teaching phylogentics to ecology course and hopefully showing how some life history traits evolve. Might be interesting.
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