The French aristocrat who understood evolution 100 years before Darwin – and even worried about climate change

Georges-Louis Leclerc proposed species change and extinction back in the 1740s, a new book revealsShortly after Charles Darwin published his magnum opus,The Origin of Species, in 1859 he started reading a little-known 100-year-old work by a wealthy French aristocrat.Its contents were quite a surprise. “Whole pages [of his book] are laughably like mine,” Darwin wrote to a friend. “It is surprising how candid it makes one to see one’s view in another man’s words.”In later editions ofThe Origin of Species, Darwin acknowledged Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, as one of the “few” people who had understood that species change and evolve, before Darwin himself.Continue reading...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Charles Darwin Evolution Biology Science France Europe World news Source Type: news