EMERGENCE OF CONTEMPORARY BIOLOGY -
1. Aristotle (384-322BC) - Greek
- Classified animal species and arranged them in hierarchies.
- Formulated 'Great chain of Being' or 'Scala Naturae' as chain of progressive change.
- Dealt with over 500 types of animals and dissected 50 of them.
- Studied developing embryo of chick and reported that sharks give birth to young ones but have no placenta like mammals, classified placental dolphins with mammals.
- Historia animalium (Natural history of animals)
- De Partibus animalium (Parts of animals) .
- De Generatione animalium (Reproduction of animals)
- He studied the development of chick embryo.
- Observed and reported vivipary in sharks (They do not develop placenta)
2. Andreas Vesalius (1514-1564). Belgian; "Father of Anatomy"
Book : De Humani Corporis Fabrica (The structure of human body)
3. William Harvey (1578-1657). British; demonstrated blood circulation pumped by heart.
Book: Anatomical Exercise on the Motion of the Heart and Blood. Also contributed-reproduction and embryonic development of chick.
4. Robert Hooke (1635-1703) British;
Book: Micrographia. Coined the term 'cellulae'.
5. Antony Von Leeuwenhoeck (1632-1723). Dutch cloth merchant turned scientist;
- Observed living cells with his own invented simple microscope. e.g. protozoans, human sperm, eggs, (and blood corpuscles of invertebrates, Hydra, about compound eyes of insects & many other animals structures.)
- First to draw a diagram of bacteria (1683).
6. Carolus Linnaeus - (1707-1778) Swedish naturalist. Introduced Binomial nomenclature.
Book: Species Plantarum (1753) registers about 6000 species of plants.
Systema Naturae (1758) - recorded about 4000 species of animals.
7. Georges Leopold Cuvier (1769-1832) French palaeontologist
- Rejected the traditional 'scala naturae' as a unifying concept of evolution.
- First to identify the fossils of extinct bird like reptile and laid the foundation of palaeontology.
- First to give concept of comparative anatomy of chordates.
8. Jean Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) French naturalist; discarded the idea of fixity of species.
Book: Philosophie Zoologique (1809)
9. Matthias Schleiden-(1804-1881) Cell theory - (1838) German Botanist
10. Theodor Schwann-(1810-1882) Cell theory - (1839) German Zoologist
11. Charles Robert Darwin -British naturalist (1809-1882).
Book: On the origin of species by natural selection:
12. Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) french scientist.
- Refused the theory of spontaneous generation.
- Proved fermentation is caused by living organisms
- Gave Germ Theory of diseases, and developed scientific basis of immunity on cholera bacteria in chicken.
- Discovered vaccine against anthrax caused by Bacillus anthracis in cattle.
- His technique of killing germs (or sterlisation) Pasteurization.
13. Gregor Johann Mendel (1822-1884) Austrian monk; discovered (1865) the Principles of inheritance which remained unknown to the world till 1900.
14. August Weismann (1834-1914) - German biologist; gave theory of germplasm-(1892).