6500 BC. The
aurochs, ancestors of domestic
cattle, were domesticated in the next two centuries if not earlier (Obre I,
Yugoslavia). This was the last major animal to be tamed as a source of milk, meat, power, and leather in the
Old World.
3500 BC.
Sumerian animal-drawn wheeled vehicles and plows were developed in
Mesopotamia, the region called the "
Fertile Crescent".
Irrigation was probably done using animal power. Since Sumeria had no natural defenses, armies with mounted
cavalry and
chariots became important which increased the importance of equines (
horses and
donkeys).
1100 BC. Won Chang (China), first of the
Zhou emperors, stocked his imperial
zoological garden with
deer,
goats,
birds, and
fish from many parts of the world. The emperor also enjoyed sporting events with the use of animals.
610 BC.
Anaximander (Greek, 610 BC–545 BC) was a student of
Thales of Miletus. He was taught that the first life was formed by
spontaneous generation in the mud. Later animals came into being by transmutations, left the water, and reached dry land. Man was derived from lower animals, probably aquatic. His writings, especially his poem On Nature, were read and cited by
Aristotle and other later philosophers, but are lost now.
563? BC.
Buddha (Indian, 563?–483 BC) had gentle ideas on the treatment of animals. He said that animals are held to have intrinsic worth, not just the values they derive from their usefulness to man.
500 BC.
Empedocles of Agrigentum (Greek, 504–433 BC) reportedly rid a town of
malaria by draining nearby swamps. He proposed the theory of the
four humors and a natural origin of living things.
500 BC.
Xenophanes (Greek, 576–460 BC), a disciple of
Pythagoras (570–497 BC), first recognized
fossils as animal remains and inferred that their presence on mountains indicated the latter had once been beneath the sea. "If horses or oxen had hands and could draw or make statues, horses would represent the forms of gods as horses, oxen as oxen."
Galen (130–216 AD) revived interest in fossils that had been rejected by Aristotle, and the speculations of Xenophanes were again viewed with favor.
470 BC.
Democritus of Abdera (Greek, 470–370 BC) made dissections of many animals and humans. He was the first Greek philosopher-scientist to propose a classification of animals, dividing them into blooded animals (Vertebrata) and bloodless animals (Evertebrata). He also held that lower animals had perfected organs and that the brain was the seat of thought.
460 BC.
Hippocrates (Greek, 460–370 BC), the "Father of Medicine", used animal dissections to advance human anatomy.
440 BC.
Herodotus of
Halikarnassos (Greek, 484–425 BC) treated exotic fauna in his Historia, but his accounts are often based on tall tales. He explored the
Nile, but much of
ancient Egyptian civilization had already lost to living memory by his time.
427 BC.
Plato (Greek, 427–347 BC) held that animals existed to serve man, but they should not be mistreated because this would lead people to mistreat others. Others who echoed this opinion are St.
Thomas Aquinas,
Immanuel Kant, and
Albert Schweitzer.
384 BC.
Aristotle's (Greek, 384–322 BC) books Historia Animalium (9 books), De Partibus Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium set the zoological stage for centuries. He emphasized the value of direct observation, recognized law and order in biological phenomena, and derived conclusions inductively from observations. He believed that there was a natural process of animals that ran from simple to complex. He made advances in
marine biology, basing his writings on keen observation and rational interpretation as well as conversations with local
Lesbos fishermen for two years, beginning in 344 BC. His account of male protection of eggs by the barking catfish was scorned for centuries until
Louis Agassiz confirmed
Aristotle's description.
323 BC.
Alexander the Great (Macedonian, 356–323 BC) collected animals when he was not busy conquering the known world. He is credited with the introduction of the
peacock into Europe.
70 BC. Publius Vergilius Maro (
Virgil) (70–19 BC) was a famous Roman poet. His poems Bucolics (42–37 BC) and Georgics (37–30 BC) hold much information on animal husbandry and farm life. His Aeneid (published posthumously) has many references to the zoology of his time.
36 BC. Marcus Terentius
Varro (116–27 BC) wrote De Re Rustica, a treatise that includes
apiculture. He also treated the problem of
sterility in the
mule and recorded a rare instance in which a
fertile mule was bred.
50.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Roman, 4 BC–65 AD), tutor to Roman emperor
Nero, maintained that animals have no reason, just instinct, a "stoic" position.
77.
Pliny the Elder (Roman, 23–79) wrote his Historia Naturalis in 37 volumes. This work is a catch-all of zoological folklore, superstitions, and some good observations.
100.
Plutarch (Roman, 46–120) stated that animals' behavior is motivated by reason and understanding.
131.
Galen of Pergamum (Greek, 130–216), physician to Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius, wrote on human anatomy from dissections of animals. His texts were used for hundreds of years, gaining the reputation of infallibility.
200 c. Various compilers in post-classical and medieval times added to the Physiologus (or, more popularly, the Bestiary), the major book on animals for hundreds of years. Animals were believed to exist to serve man, if not as food or slaves then as moral examples.
Early third century. Composition of De Natura Animalium by
Claudius Aelianus (Roman, 175–235.)
Middle Ages
600.
Isidorus Hispalensis (Spanish bishop of
Seville) (560–636) wrote Origines sive Etymologiae, an encyclopedic compendium of ancient knowledge including information on animals that served until the rediscovery of Aristotle and Pliny. Full of errors, it nevertheless was influential for hundreds of years. He also wrote De Natura Rerum.
781.
Al-Jahiz (Afro-Arab, 781–868/869), a scholar at
Basra, wrote on the influence of environment on animals.
901.
Horses came into wider use in those parts of Europe where the
three-field system produces grain surpluses for feed, but hay-fed
oxen were more economical, if less efficient, in terms of time and labor and remained almost the sole source of animal power in southern Europe, where most farmers continued to use the
two-field system.
1225-1244.
Thomas of Cantimpré‚ (Fleming, 1204?–1275?) wrote Liber de Natura Rerum, a major 13th-century encyclopedia.
1244–1248.
Frederick II von Hohenstaufen (Holy Roman Emperor) (1194–1250) wrote De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of
Hunting with Birds) as a practical guide to
ornithology.
1244. Vincentius Bellovacensis (
Vincent of Beauvais) (?–1264) wrote Speculum Quadruplex Naturale, Doctrinale, Morale, Historiale (1244–1254), a major encyclopedia of the 13th century. This work comprises three huge volumes, of 80 books and 9,885 chapters.
1254–1323.
Marco Polo (Italian, 1254–1323) provided information on Asiatic fauna, revealing new animals to Europeans. "
Unicorns" (which may actually have been
rhinos) were reported from southern China, but fantastic animals were otherwise not included.
1255–1270.
Albertus Magnus of
Cologne (Bavarian, 1206?–1280) (Albert von Bollstaedt or St. Albert) wrote De Animalibus. He promoted Aristotle but also included new material on the perfection and intelligence of animals, especially bees.
1304–1309.
Petrus de Crescentii wrote Ruralum Commodorum, a practical manual for agriculture with many accurate observations on
insects and other animals.
Apiculture was discussed at length.
1492.
Christopher Columbus (Italian) arrives in the
New World. New animals soon begin to overload European zoology. Columbus is said to have introduced cattle, horses, and eight pigs from the
Canary Islands to
Hispaniola in 1493, giving rise to virtual devastation of that and other islands. Pigs were often set ashore by sailors to provide food on the ship's later return. Feral populations of hogs were often dangerous to humans.
1519–1520.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Spanish, 1450?–1500), chronicler of
Cortez's conquest of
Mexico, commented on the zoological gardens of
Aztec ruler
Montezuma (1466–1520), a marvel with
parrots,
rattlesnakes, and other animals.
1551–1555. Pierre
Belon (French, 1517–1564) wrote L'Histoire Naturelle des Estranges Poissons Marins (1551) and La Nature et Diversité des Poissons (1555). This latter work included 110 animal species and offered many new observations and corrections to Herodotus. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux avec leurs descriptions et naïfs portraicts (1555) was his picture book, with improved animal classification and accurate anatomical drawings. In this he published a man's and a bird's skeleton side by side to show the resemblance. He discovered an armadillo shell in a market in
Syria, showing how Muslims were distributing the finds from the New World.
1551.
Conrad Gessner (Swiss, 1516–1565) wrote Historia animalium (Tiguri, 4 vols., 1551–1558, last volume published in 1587) and gained renown. This work, although uncritically compiled in places, was consulted for over 200 years. He also wrote Icones animalum (1553) and Thierbuch (1563).
1552
Edward Wotton (English, 1492–1555) published De Differentiis Animalium, a work that influenced Gessner.
1554–1555.
Guillaume Rondelet (French, 1507–1566) wrote Libri de piscibus marinis (1554) and Universe aquatilium historia (1555). He gathered
vernacular names in hope of being able to identify the animal in question. He did go to print with discoveries that disagreed with Aristotle.
1578.
Jean de Lery (French, 1534–1611) was a member of the French colony at
Rio de Janeiro. He published Voyage en Amerique avec la description des animaux et plantes de ce pays (1578) with observations on the local fauna.
1589.
José de Acosta (Spanish, 1539–1600) wrote De Natura Novi Orbis Libri duo (1589) and Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (1590), describing many animals from the New World previously unknown to Europeans.
17th century
1600. In Italy a spider scare lead to hysteria and the
tarantella dance by which the body cures itself through physical exertions.
1602.
Ulisse Aldrovandi (Italian, 1522–1605) wrote De Animalibus Insectis. This and his other works include many scientific inaccuracies, but he used wing and leg morphology to construct his classification of insects. He is more highly regarded for his ornithological contributions.
1607 (1612?).
Captain John Smith (English), head of the
Jamestown colony, wrote A Map of Virginia in which he describes the physical features of the country, its climate, plants and animals, and inhabitants. He describes the raccoon,
muskrat,
flying squirrel, and other animals.
1620? North American colonists probably introduced the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, into Virginia. By the 1640s these insects were also in
Massachusetts. They became feral and advanced through eastern North America before the settlers.
1628.
William Harvey (English, 1578–1657) published Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (1628) with the doctrine of the circulation of blood (an inference made by him in about 1616).
1634. William Wood (English) wrote New England Prospect (1634) in which he describes New England's fauna.
1637.
Thomas Morton (English, c. 1579–1647) wrote New English Canaan (1637) with treatments of 26 species of mammals, 32 birds, 20 fishes and 8 marine invertebrates.
1648.
Georg Marcgrave (1610–1644) was a German astronomer working for Johann Moritz, Count Maurice of Nassau, in the Dutch colony set up in northeastern
Brazil. His Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) contains the best early descriptions of many Brazilian animals. Marcgrave used
Tupi names that were later Latinized by Linnaeus in the 13th edition of the Systema Naturae. The biological and linguistic data could have come from Moraes, a Brazilian
Jesuit priest turned apostate.
1651.
William Harvey published Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (1651) with the aphorism Ex ovo omnia on the title page.
1661.
Marcello Malpighi (Italian, 1628–1694) discovered
capillaries (1661), structures predicted to exist by Harvey some thirty years earlier. Malpighi was the founder of
microanatomy. He studied, among other things, the anatomy of the silkworm (1669) and the development of the chick (1672).
1665.
Robert Hooke (English, 1635–1703) wrote Micrographia (1665, 88 plates), with his early microscopic studies. He coined the term "
cell".
1668.
Francesco Redi (Italian, 1621–1697) wrote Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degli Insetti (1668) and De animaculis vivis quae in corpribus animalium vivorum reperiuntur (1708). His refutation of spontaneous generation in flies is still considered a model in experimentation.
1669.
Jan Swammerdam (Dutch, 1637–1680) wrote Historia Insectorum Generalis (1669) describing
metamorphosis in insects and supporting the performation doctrine. He was a pioneer in microscopic studies. He gave the first description of
red blood corpuscles and discovered the valves of
lymph vessels. His work was unknown and unacknowledged until after his death.
Martin Lister (English, 1639–1712) publishes the first work on spiders based on observation.
1691.
John Ray (English, 1627–1705) wrote Synopsis methodica animalium quadripedum (1693), Historia Insectorum (1710), and The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691). He tried to classify different animal species into groups largely according to their
toes and
teeth.
1699.
Edward Tyson (English, 1650–1708) wrote Orang-Outang sive Homo Sylvestris (or Anatomy of a Pygmie Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape and a Man) (1699), his anatomical study of the
primate. This was the first detailed and accurate study of the higher apes. Other studies by Tyson include the female
porpoise, male
rattlesnake,
tapeworm,
roundworm (Ascaris),
peccary and
opossum.
1700.
Félix de Azara (Spanish) estimated the feral herds of cattle on the South American
pampas at 48 million animals. These animals probably descended from herds introduced by the Jesuits some 100 years earlier. (North America and Australia were to follow in this pattern, where feral herds of cattle and
mustangs would explode, become pests, and reform the frontier areas.)
18th century
1705.
Maria Sybilla Merian (German, 1647–1717) wrote and illustrated her Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensis (Veranderingen der Surinaamsche Insecten) (1705). In this book she stated that Fulgora lanternaria was luminous.
1734–1742.
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (French, 1683–1756) was an early entomologist. His Mémoires pour servir ... l'histoire des insectes (6 volumes) shows the best of zoological observation at the time. He invented the glass-fronted bee hive.
1740.
Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist, discovered the
hydra which he considered to combine both animal and plant characteristics. His Mémoires pour Servir ... l'Histoire d'un Genre de Polypes d'Eau Douce ... Bras en Terme de Cornes (1744) showed that freshwater polyps of Hydra could be sectioned or mutilated and still reform.
Regeneration soon became a topic of inquiry among Réaumur, Bonnet,
Spallanzani, and others.
1745.
Charles Bonnet (French-Swiss, 1720–1793) wrote Traité d'Insectologie (1745) and Contemplation de la nature (1732). He confirmed
parthenogenesis of
aphids.
1745.
Pierre Louis M. de Maupertuis (French, 1698–1759) went to
Lapland to measure the
arc of the meridian (1736–1737). Maupertuis was a Newtonian. He generated family trees for inheritable characteristics (e.g.,
haemophilia in European royal families) and showed inheritance through both the male and female lines. He was an early evolutionist and head of the
Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1744 he proposed the theory that molecules from all parts of the body were gathered into the
gonads (later called "
pangenesis"). Vénus physique was published anonymously in 1745. Maupertuis wrote Essai de cosmologie in which he suggests a
survival of the fittest concept: "Could not one say that since, in the accidental combination of Nature's productions, only those could survive which found themselves provided with certain appropriate relationships, it is no wonder that these relationships are present in all the species that actually exist? These species which we see today are only the smallest part of those which a blind destiny produced."
1748.
John Tuberville Needham, an English naturalist, wrote Observations upon the Generation, Composition, and Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Substances in which he offers "proof" of spontaneous generation. Needham found flasks of broth teeming with "little animals" after having boiled them and sealed them, but his experimental techniques were faulty.
1749–1804.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707–1788) wrote Histoire Naturelle (1749–1804 in 44 vols.), which asserted that species were mutable. Buffon also drew attention to
vestigial organs. He held that spermatozoa were "living organic molecules" that multiplied in the semen.
1752. Founding of the
Schönbrunn Zoo in
Vienna, the world's oldest continuously operating zoo.
1753. The
British Museum was founded in the will of Sir
Hans Sloane (English (born Ireland), 1660–1753). It would open its doors in 1759.
1758.
Albrecht von Haller (Swiss, 1708–1777) was one of the founders of modern
physiology. His work on the
nervous system was revolutionary. He championed animal physiology, along with human physiology. See his textbook Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani (1758).
1759.
Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733–1794) wrote Theoria Generationis (1759) that disagreed with the idea of
preformation. He supported the doctrine of
epigenesis as a way to resolve the problem of hybrids (mule, hinny, apemen) in preformation.
1769.
Edward Bancroft (English) wrote An Essay on the Natural History of Guyana in South America (1769)[3] and advanced the theory that flies transmit disease.
1771.
Johann Reinhold Forster (German, 1729–1798) was the naturalist on Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775). He published a Catalogue of the Animals of North America (1771)[4] as an addendum to Kalm's Travels. He also studied the birds of
Hudson Bay.
1775.
Johan Christian Fabricius (Danish, 1745–1808) wrote Systema Entomologiae (1775), Genera Insectorum (1776), Philosophia Entomologica (1778), Entomologia Systematica (1792–1794, in six vols.), and later publications (to 1805), to make Fabricius one of the world's greatest entomologists.
1780.
Lazaro Spallanzani (Italian, 1729–1799) performed
artificial fertilization in the frog, silkmoth and dog. He concluded from filtration experiments that spermatozoa were necessary for fertilization. In 1783 he showed that human
digestion was a
chemical process since
gastric juices in and outside the body liquefied food (meat). He used himself as the experimental animal. His work to disprove spontaneous generation in microbes was resisted by
John Needham (English priest, 1713–1781).
1783–1792.
Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira (Brazilian) wrote Viagem Filosófica pelas Captanias do Grão-Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso e Cuiabá. His specimens were taken by
Saint-Hilaire from
Lisbon to the
Paris Museum during the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal.
1784.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German) wrote Erster Entwurf einer Einleitung in die vergleichende Anatomie (1795) that promoted the idea of archetypes to which animals should be compared.
1784.
Thomas Jefferson (American) wrote Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) that refuted some of Buffon's mistakes about New World fauna. As U.S. president, he dispatched the
Lewis and Clark Expedition to the American West (1804).
1788. The
First Fleet inaugurates British settlement of
Australia. Knowledge of Australia's unique zoology, including
marsupials and the
platypus, would revolutionize Western zoology.
1789?
Guillaume Antoine Olivier (French, 1756–1814) wrote Entomologie, or Histoire Naturelle des Insectes (1789).
1789.
George Shaw &
Frederick Polydore Nodder published The Naturalist's Miscellany: or coloured figures of natural objects drawn and described immediately from nature (1789–1813) in 24 volumes with hundreds of color plates.
1792.
François Huber made original observations on honeybees. In his Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles (1792) he noted that the first eggs laid by
queen bees develop into
drones if her
nuptial flight had been delayed and that her last eggs would also give rise to drones. He also noted that rare worker eggs develop into drones. This anticipated by over 50 years the discovery by
Jan Dzierżon that drones come from unfertilized eggs and queen and worker bees come from fertilized eggs.
1793.
Lazaro Spallanzani (Italian, 1729–1799) conducted experiments on the orientation of
bats and
owls in the dark.
1793.
Christian Konrad Sprengel (1750–1816) wrote Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen (1793) that was a major work on insect
pollination of flowers, previously discovered in 1721 by
Philip Miller (1694–1771), the head gardener at Chelsea and author of the famous Gardener's Dictionary (1731–1804).
1794.
Erasmus Darwin (English, grandfather of
Charles Darwin) wrote Zoönomia, or the Laws of Organic Life (1794)[6] in which he advanced the idea that environmental influences could transform species.
1796–1829.
Pierre André Latreille (French, 1762–1833) sought to provide a "natural" system for the classification of animals, in his many monographs on invertebrates. Insectes de l'Amerique Equinoxiale (1811) was devoted to insects collected by
Humboldt and
Bonpland.
1799.
George Shaw (English) provided the first description of the duck-billed platypus.[7]Everard Home (1802) provided the first complete description.
1799–1803.
Alexander von Humboldt (German, 1769–1859) and
Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud Bonpland (French) arrived in Venezuela in 1799. Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America during the years 1799–1804[8] and Kosmos were influential in his time.
1799.
Georges Cuvier (French, 1769–1832) established
comparative anatomy as a field. He also founded the science of
paleontology. He wrote Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée (1801–1805), Le Règne Animal distribué d'après son organisation (1816), Ossemens Fossiles (1812–1813). He believed in the fixity of species and the
Biblical Flood. His early Tableau élémentaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux (1798) was influential, but it did not include Cuvier's major contributions to animal classification.
1799. American hunters killed the last
bison on the Eastern coast of the United States, in Pennsylvania.
19th century
1802.
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (French, 1744–1829) wrote Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps Vivants and Philosophie zoologique (1809). He was an early evolutionist and organized invertebrate paleontology. While Lamarck's contributions to science include work in
meteorology,
botany,
chemistry,
geology, and paleontology, he is best known for his work in invertebrate zoology and his theoretical work on evolution. He published a seven-volume work, Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres ("Natural history of animals without backbones"; 1815–1822).
1813–1818.
William Charles Wells (Scottish-American, 1757–1817) was the first to recognise the principle of
natural selection. He read a paper to the
Royal Society in 1813 (but not published until 1818) which used the idea to explain differences between
human races. The application was limited to the question of how different skin colours arose.
1815.
William Kirby and
William Spence (English) wrote An Introduction to Entomology (first edition in 1815). This was the first modern entomology text.
1817. Publication of American Entomology by
Thomas Say, the first work devoted to American insects. A greatly expanded three-volume edition would appear 1824–1828. Say was a systematic zoologist who moved to the utopian community at
New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825. Most of his insect collections have been recovered.
1817–1820.
Johann Baptist von Spix (German, 1781–1826) and
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (German) conducted Brazilian zoological and botanical explorations (1817–1820). See their Reise in Brasilien auf Befehl Sr. Majestät Maximilian Joseph I König von Bayern in den Jahren 1817 bis 1820 gemacht und beschrieben (3 vols., 1823–1831).
1817.
William Smith, in his Strategraphical System of Organized Fossils (1817) showed that certain strata have characteristic series of fossils.
1819
William Lawrence (English, 1783–1867) published a book of his lectures to the
Royal College of Surgeons. The book contains a rejection of
Lamarckism (
soft inheritance), proto-evolutionary ideas about the origin of mankind, and a denial of the 'Jewish scriptures' (
Old Testament). He was forced to suppress the book after the Lord Chancellor refused copyright and other powerful men made threatening remarks.
1819.
Malayan tapir, a first species of
tapir to be discovered, is described.
1824. Publication of the French physician
Henri Dutrochet's Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire anatomique et physiologique des végétaux et des animaux setting forth a physiological theory of the cell.
1824. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (
RSPCA) is founded at London.
1824. Founding of the
Zoological Journal, the first English-language journal of zoology. The last issue would appear in 1834.
1825.
Gideon Mantell (English) wrote "Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate Forest, in Sussex" (Phil. Trans. Roy, Soc. Lond., 115: 179–186), the first paper on
dinosaurs. The name dinosaur was coined by anatomist
Richard Owen.
1826–1839.
John James Audubon (Haitian-born American, 1785–1851) wrote Birds of America (1826–1839), with North American bird portraits and studies. See also his posthumously published volume on North American mammals written with his sons and the naturalist
John Bachman, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845–1854) with 150 folio plates.
1827.
Karl Ernst von Baer (Russian embryologist, 1792–1876) was the founder of comparative embryology. He demonstrated the existence of the mammalian ovum, and he proposed the germ-layer theory. His major works include De ovi mammalium et hominis genesi (1827) and Über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Tiere (1828; 1837).
1828. The Zoological Society of London opens its "zoo" to the public (later known as the
London Zoo) for two days a week beginning April 27, 1828, with the first
hippopotamus to be seen in Europe since the ancient Romans showed one at the
Colosseum. This was the first modern zoo founded for scientific research and education.
1830–1833. Sir
Charles Lyell (English, 1797–1875) writes Principles of Geology and described the time required for evolution to work. Darwin took this book to sea on
HMS Beagle.
1832.
Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859) writes A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada (1832) that becomes the standard text on the subject for most of the 19th century.
1835.
William Swainson (English, 1789–1855) writes A Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals (1835), in which he uses ad hoc
land bridges to explain animal distributions. He includes some second-hand observations on Old World
army ants.
1835. Founding of the
Archiv für Naturgeschichte, the premier German-language journal of natural history with an emphasis on zoology. It would be published until 1926.
1839.
Theodor Schwann (German, 1810–1882) writes Mikroskopischen Untersuchungen über die Übereinstimmungen in der Strucktur und dem Wachstum der Thiere und Pflanzen (1839). Schwann established the foundation for
cell theory.
1839.
Louis Agassiz (Swiss-American, 1807–1873), an expert on fossil fishes, founds the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and becomes Darwin's North American opposition. He was a popularizer of natural history. His Nomenclator Zoologicus (1842–1847) was a pioneering effort.
1840.
Jan Evangelista Purkyně, a Czech physiologist in
Wrocław proposes that the word "protoplasm" be applied to the formative material of young animal embryos.
1842. Baron
Justus von Liebig writes Die Thierchemie in which he suggests that animal heat is produced by combustion, and founds the science of
biochemistry.
1843.
John James Audubon, age 58, ascends the
Missouri River to Fort Union at the mouth of the Yellowstone to sketch wild animals.
1844.
Robert Chambers (Scottish, 1802–1871) writes the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) in which he includes early evolutionary considerations. This book, anonymously published, has a profound effect on Alfred Russel Wallace.
1848.
Alfred Russel Wallace (British, 1823–1913) and
Henry W. Bates (English, 1825–1892) arrive in the
Amazon River valley in 1848. Bates stays until 1859, exploring the upper Amazon. Wallace remains in the Amazon until 1852, exploring the
Rio Negro. Wallace writes A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1853), and Bates writes The Naturalist on the River Amazons (1863). Later (1854–1862), Wallace travels to the Far East, as he reports in The Malay Archipelago (1869).
1850.
Thomas Hardwicke (British naturalist) is the first European to discover the
lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens) in northern India.
1855.
Alfred Russel Wallace (English, 1823–1913) publishes On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., September 1855), with evolutionary ideas that drew upon Wallace's experiences in the Amazon.
1857–1881.
Henri Milne-Edwards (French, 1800–1885) introduces the idea of physiologic division of labor and writes a treatise on comparative anatomy and physiology (1857–1881).
1865.
Gregor Mendel demonstrates in
pea plants that inheritance follows
definite rules. The Principle of Segregation states that each organism has two
genes per trait, which segregate when the organism makes eggs or sperm. The Principle of Independent Assortment states that each gene in a pair is distributed independently during the formation of eggs or sperm. Mendel's observations went largely unnoticed.
1876.
Oskar Hertwig and
Hermann Fol independently describe (in
sea urchin eggs) the entry of sperm into the egg and the subsequent fusion of the egg and sperm nuclei to form a single new nucleus.
1892.
Hans Driesch separates the individual cells of a 2-cell sea urchin embryo, and shows that each cell develops into a complete individual, thus disproving the theory of preformation, and demonstrating that each cell is "totipotent," containing all the hereditary information necessary to form an individual.
1963. Premier of the popular American zoological documentary series
Wild Kingdom on the NBC television network. 140 episodes would appear before the series ended in 1988.
1972.
Stephen Jay Gould and
Niles Eldredge propose "
punctuated equilibrium," a theory which states that the fossil record is an accurate depiction of the pace of evolution, with long periods of "stasis" (little change) punctuated by brief periods of rapid change and species
divergence.
1990. American entomologist
E. O. Wilson and German entomologist
Bert Hölldobler publish
The Ants. The next year it will win the
Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, the only zoology textbook ever to do so.
^Charles A. Reed. Animal Domestication in the Prehistoric Near East: The origins and history of domestication are beginning to emerge from archeological excavations. Science, Vol. 130, no. 3389 (December 11, 1959), pp. 1629–1639
^Alexandra Kerbl, Nicolas Bekkouche, Wolfgang Sterrer & Katrine Worsaae, "Detailed reconstruction of the nervous and muscular system of Lobatocerebridae with an evaluation of its annelid affinity", BMC Evolutionary Biology volume 15, Article number: 277 (2015),
https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-015-0531-x
6500 BC. The
aurochs, ancestors of domestic
cattle, were domesticated in the next two centuries if not earlier (Obre I,
Yugoslavia). This was the last major animal to be tamed as a source of milk, meat, power, and leather in the
Old World.
3500 BC.
Sumerian animal-drawn wheeled vehicles and plows were developed in
Mesopotamia, the region called the "
Fertile Crescent".
Irrigation was probably done using animal power. Since Sumeria had no natural defenses, armies with mounted
cavalry and
chariots became important which increased the importance of equines (
horses and
donkeys).
1100 BC. Won Chang (China), first of the
Zhou emperors, stocked his imperial
zoological garden with
deer,
goats,
birds, and
fish from many parts of the world. The emperor also enjoyed sporting events with the use of animals.
610 BC.
Anaximander (Greek, 610 BC–545 BC) was a student of
Thales of Miletus. He was taught that the first life was formed by
spontaneous generation in the mud. Later animals came into being by transmutations, left the water, and reached dry land. Man was derived from lower animals, probably aquatic. His writings, especially his poem On Nature, were read and cited by
Aristotle and other later philosophers, but are lost now.
563? BC.
Buddha (Indian, 563?–483 BC) had gentle ideas on the treatment of animals. He said that animals are held to have intrinsic worth, not just the values they derive from their usefulness to man.
500 BC.
Empedocles of Agrigentum (Greek, 504–433 BC) reportedly rid a town of
malaria by draining nearby swamps. He proposed the theory of the
four humors and a natural origin of living things.
500 BC.
Xenophanes (Greek, 576–460 BC), a disciple of
Pythagoras (570–497 BC), first recognized
fossils as animal remains and inferred that their presence on mountains indicated the latter had once been beneath the sea. "If horses or oxen had hands and could draw or make statues, horses would represent the forms of gods as horses, oxen as oxen."
Galen (130–216 AD) revived interest in fossils that had been rejected by Aristotle, and the speculations of Xenophanes were again viewed with favor.
470 BC.
Democritus of Abdera (Greek, 470–370 BC) made dissections of many animals and humans. He was the first Greek philosopher-scientist to propose a classification of animals, dividing them into blooded animals (Vertebrata) and bloodless animals (Evertebrata). He also held that lower animals had perfected organs and that the brain was the seat of thought.
460 BC.
Hippocrates (Greek, 460–370 BC), the "Father of Medicine", used animal dissections to advance human anatomy.
440 BC.
Herodotus of
Halikarnassos (Greek, 484–425 BC) treated exotic fauna in his Historia, but his accounts are often based on tall tales. He explored the
Nile, but much of
ancient Egyptian civilization had already lost to living memory by his time.
427 BC.
Plato (Greek, 427–347 BC) held that animals existed to serve man, but they should not be mistreated because this would lead people to mistreat others. Others who echoed this opinion are St.
Thomas Aquinas,
Immanuel Kant, and
Albert Schweitzer.
384 BC.
Aristotle's (Greek, 384–322 BC) books Historia Animalium (9 books), De Partibus Animalium, and De Generatione Animalium set the zoological stage for centuries. He emphasized the value of direct observation, recognized law and order in biological phenomena, and derived conclusions inductively from observations. He believed that there was a natural process of animals that ran from simple to complex. He made advances in
marine biology, basing his writings on keen observation and rational interpretation as well as conversations with local
Lesbos fishermen for two years, beginning in 344 BC. His account of male protection of eggs by the barking catfish was scorned for centuries until
Louis Agassiz confirmed
Aristotle's description.
323 BC.
Alexander the Great (Macedonian, 356–323 BC) collected animals when he was not busy conquering the known world. He is credited with the introduction of the
peacock into Europe.
70 BC. Publius Vergilius Maro (
Virgil) (70–19 BC) was a famous Roman poet. His poems Bucolics (42–37 BC) and Georgics (37–30 BC) hold much information on animal husbandry and farm life. His Aeneid (published posthumously) has many references to the zoology of his time.
36 BC. Marcus Terentius
Varro (116–27 BC) wrote De Re Rustica, a treatise that includes
apiculture. He also treated the problem of
sterility in the
mule and recorded a rare instance in which a
fertile mule was bred.
50.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca (Roman, 4 BC–65 AD), tutor to Roman emperor
Nero, maintained that animals have no reason, just instinct, a "stoic" position.
77.
Pliny the Elder (Roman, 23–79) wrote his Historia Naturalis in 37 volumes. This work is a catch-all of zoological folklore, superstitions, and some good observations.
100.
Plutarch (Roman, 46–120) stated that animals' behavior is motivated by reason and understanding.
131.
Galen of Pergamum (Greek, 130–216), physician to Roman Emperor
Marcus Aurelius, wrote on human anatomy from dissections of animals. His texts were used for hundreds of years, gaining the reputation of infallibility.
200 c. Various compilers in post-classical and medieval times added to the Physiologus (or, more popularly, the Bestiary), the major book on animals for hundreds of years. Animals were believed to exist to serve man, if not as food or slaves then as moral examples.
Early third century. Composition of De Natura Animalium by
Claudius Aelianus (Roman, 175–235.)
Middle Ages
600.
Isidorus Hispalensis (Spanish bishop of
Seville) (560–636) wrote Origines sive Etymologiae, an encyclopedic compendium of ancient knowledge including information on animals that served until the rediscovery of Aristotle and Pliny. Full of errors, it nevertheless was influential for hundreds of years. He also wrote De Natura Rerum.
781.
Al-Jahiz (Afro-Arab, 781–868/869), a scholar at
Basra, wrote on the influence of environment on animals.
901.
Horses came into wider use in those parts of Europe where the
three-field system produces grain surpluses for feed, but hay-fed
oxen were more economical, if less efficient, in terms of time and labor and remained almost the sole source of animal power in southern Europe, where most farmers continued to use the
two-field system.
1225-1244.
Thomas of Cantimpré‚ (Fleming, 1204?–1275?) wrote Liber de Natura Rerum, a major 13th-century encyclopedia.
1244–1248.
Frederick II von Hohenstaufen (Holy Roman Emperor) (1194–1250) wrote De Arte Venandi cum Avibus (The Art of
Hunting with Birds) as a practical guide to
ornithology.
1244. Vincentius Bellovacensis (
Vincent of Beauvais) (?–1264) wrote Speculum Quadruplex Naturale, Doctrinale, Morale, Historiale (1244–1254), a major encyclopedia of the 13th century. This work comprises three huge volumes, of 80 books and 9,885 chapters.
1254–1323.
Marco Polo (Italian, 1254–1323) provided information on Asiatic fauna, revealing new animals to Europeans. "
Unicorns" (which may actually have been
rhinos) were reported from southern China, but fantastic animals were otherwise not included.
1255–1270.
Albertus Magnus of
Cologne (Bavarian, 1206?–1280) (Albert von Bollstaedt or St. Albert) wrote De Animalibus. He promoted Aristotle but also included new material on the perfection and intelligence of animals, especially bees.
1304–1309.
Petrus de Crescentii wrote Ruralum Commodorum, a practical manual for agriculture with many accurate observations on
insects and other animals.
Apiculture was discussed at length.
1492.
Christopher Columbus (Italian) arrives in the
New World. New animals soon begin to overload European zoology. Columbus is said to have introduced cattle, horses, and eight pigs from the
Canary Islands to
Hispaniola in 1493, giving rise to virtual devastation of that and other islands. Pigs were often set ashore by sailors to provide food on the ship's later return. Feral populations of hogs were often dangerous to humans.
1519–1520.
Bernal Diaz del Castillo (Spanish, 1450?–1500), chronicler of
Cortez's conquest of
Mexico, commented on the zoological gardens of
Aztec ruler
Montezuma (1466–1520), a marvel with
parrots,
rattlesnakes, and other animals.
1551–1555. Pierre
Belon (French, 1517–1564) wrote L'Histoire Naturelle des Estranges Poissons Marins (1551) and La Nature et Diversité des Poissons (1555). This latter work included 110 animal species and offered many new observations and corrections to Herodotus. L'Histoire de la nature des oyseaux avec leurs descriptions et naïfs portraicts (1555) was his picture book, with improved animal classification and accurate anatomical drawings. In this he published a man's and a bird's skeleton side by side to show the resemblance. He discovered an armadillo shell in a market in
Syria, showing how Muslims were distributing the finds from the New World.
1551.
Conrad Gessner (Swiss, 1516–1565) wrote Historia animalium (Tiguri, 4 vols., 1551–1558, last volume published in 1587) and gained renown. This work, although uncritically compiled in places, was consulted for over 200 years. He also wrote Icones animalum (1553) and Thierbuch (1563).
1552
Edward Wotton (English, 1492–1555) published De Differentiis Animalium, a work that influenced Gessner.
1554–1555.
Guillaume Rondelet (French, 1507–1566) wrote Libri de piscibus marinis (1554) and Universe aquatilium historia (1555). He gathered
vernacular names in hope of being able to identify the animal in question. He did go to print with discoveries that disagreed with Aristotle.
1578.
Jean de Lery (French, 1534–1611) was a member of the French colony at
Rio de Janeiro. He published Voyage en Amerique avec la description des animaux et plantes de ce pays (1578) with observations on the local fauna.
1589.
José de Acosta (Spanish, 1539–1600) wrote De Natura Novi Orbis Libri duo (1589) and Historia Natural y Moral de las Indias (1590), describing many animals from the New World previously unknown to Europeans.
17th century
1600. In Italy a spider scare lead to hysteria and the
tarantella dance by which the body cures itself through physical exertions.
1602.
Ulisse Aldrovandi (Italian, 1522–1605) wrote De Animalibus Insectis. This and his other works include many scientific inaccuracies, but he used wing and leg morphology to construct his classification of insects. He is more highly regarded for his ornithological contributions.
1607 (1612?).
Captain John Smith (English), head of the
Jamestown colony, wrote A Map of Virginia in which he describes the physical features of the country, its climate, plants and animals, and inhabitants. He describes the raccoon,
muskrat,
flying squirrel, and other animals.
1620? North American colonists probably introduced the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, into Virginia. By the 1640s these insects were also in
Massachusetts. They became feral and advanced through eastern North America before the settlers.
1628.
William Harvey (English, 1578–1657) published Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus (1628) with the doctrine of the circulation of blood (an inference made by him in about 1616).
1634. William Wood (English) wrote New England Prospect (1634) in which he describes New England's fauna.
1637.
Thomas Morton (English, c. 1579–1647) wrote New English Canaan (1637) with treatments of 26 species of mammals, 32 birds, 20 fishes and 8 marine invertebrates.
1648.
Georg Marcgrave (1610–1644) was a German astronomer working for Johann Moritz, Count Maurice of Nassau, in the Dutch colony set up in northeastern
Brazil. His Historia Naturalis Brasiliae (1648) contains the best early descriptions of many Brazilian animals. Marcgrave used
Tupi names that were later Latinized by Linnaeus in the 13th edition of the Systema Naturae. The biological and linguistic data could have come from Moraes, a Brazilian
Jesuit priest turned apostate.
1651.
William Harvey published Exercitationes de Generatione Animalium (1651) with the aphorism Ex ovo omnia on the title page.
1661.
Marcello Malpighi (Italian, 1628–1694) discovered
capillaries (1661), structures predicted to exist by Harvey some thirty years earlier. Malpighi was the founder of
microanatomy. He studied, among other things, the anatomy of the silkworm (1669) and the development of the chick (1672).
1665.
Robert Hooke (English, 1635–1703) wrote Micrographia (1665, 88 plates), with his early microscopic studies. He coined the term "
cell".
1668.
Francesco Redi (Italian, 1621–1697) wrote Esperienze Intorno alla Generazione degli Insetti (1668) and De animaculis vivis quae in corpribus animalium vivorum reperiuntur (1708). His refutation of spontaneous generation in flies is still considered a model in experimentation.
1669.
Jan Swammerdam (Dutch, 1637–1680) wrote Historia Insectorum Generalis (1669) describing
metamorphosis in insects and supporting the performation doctrine. He was a pioneer in microscopic studies. He gave the first description of
red blood corpuscles and discovered the valves of
lymph vessels. His work was unknown and unacknowledged until after his death.
Martin Lister (English, 1639–1712) publishes the first work on spiders based on observation.
1691.
John Ray (English, 1627–1705) wrote Synopsis methodica animalium quadripedum (1693), Historia Insectorum (1710), and The Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation (1691). He tried to classify different animal species into groups largely according to their
toes and
teeth.
1699.
Edward Tyson (English, 1650–1708) wrote Orang-Outang sive Homo Sylvestris (or Anatomy of a Pygmie Compared with that of a Monkey, an Ape and a Man) (1699), his anatomical study of the
primate. This was the first detailed and accurate study of the higher apes. Other studies by Tyson include the female
porpoise, male
rattlesnake,
tapeworm,
roundworm (Ascaris),
peccary and
opossum.
1700.
Félix de Azara (Spanish) estimated the feral herds of cattle on the South American
pampas at 48 million animals. These animals probably descended from herds introduced by the Jesuits some 100 years earlier. (North America and Australia were to follow in this pattern, where feral herds of cattle and
mustangs would explode, become pests, and reform the frontier areas.)
18th century
1705.
Maria Sybilla Merian (German, 1647–1717) wrote and illustrated her Metamorphosis insectorum surinamensis (Veranderingen der Surinaamsche Insecten) (1705). In this book she stated that Fulgora lanternaria was luminous.
1734–1742.
René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (French, 1683–1756) was an early entomologist. His Mémoires pour servir ... l'histoire des insectes (6 volumes) shows the best of zoological observation at the time. He invented the glass-fronted bee hive.
1740.
Abraham Trembley, Swiss naturalist, discovered the
hydra which he considered to combine both animal and plant characteristics. His Mémoires pour Servir ... l'Histoire d'un Genre de Polypes d'Eau Douce ... Bras en Terme de Cornes (1744) showed that freshwater polyps of Hydra could be sectioned or mutilated and still reform.
Regeneration soon became a topic of inquiry among Réaumur, Bonnet,
Spallanzani, and others.
1745.
Charles Bonnet (French-Swiss, 1720–1793) wrote Traité d'Insectologie (1745) and Contemplation de la nature (1732). He confirmed
parthenogenesis of
aphids.
1745.
Pierre Louis M. de Maupertuis (French, 1698–1759) went to
Lapland to measure the
arc of the meridian (1736–1737). Maupertuis was a Newtonian. He generated family trees for inheritable characteristics (e.g.,
haemophilia in European royal families) and showed inheritance through both the male and female lines. He was an early evolutionist and head of the
Berlin Academy of Sciences. In 1744 he proposed the theory that molecules from all parts of the body were gathered into the
gonads (later called "
pangenesis"). Vénus physique was published anonymously in 1745. Maupertuis wrote Essai de cosmologie in which he suggests a
survival of the fittest concept: "Could not one say that since, in the accidental combination of Nature's productions, only those could survive which found themselves provided with certain appropriate relationships, it is no wonder that these relationships are present in all the species that actually exist? These species which we see today are only the smallest part of those which a blind destiny produced."
1748.
John Tuberville Needham, an English naturalist, wrote Observations upon the Generation, Composition, and Decomposition of Animal and Vegetable Substances in which he offers "proof" of spontaneous generation. Needham found flasks of broth teeming with "little animals" after having boiled them and sealed them, but his experimental techniques were faulty.
1749–1804.
Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon (French, 1707–1788) wrote Histoire Naturelle (1749–1804 in 44 vols.), which asserted that species were mutable. Buffon also drew attention to
vestigial organs. He held that spermatozoa were "living organic molecules" that multiplied in the semen.
1752. Founding of the
Schönbrunn Zoo in
Vienna, the world's oldest continuously operating zoo.
1753. The
British Museum was founded in the will of Sir
Hans Sloane (English (born Ireland), 1660–1753). It would open its doors in 1759.
1758.
Albrecht von Haller (Swiss, 1708–1777) was one of the founders of modern
physiology. His work on the
nervous system was revolutionary. He championed animal physiology, along with human physiology. See his textbook Elementa Physiologiae Corporis Humani (1758).
1759.
Caspar Friedrich Wolff (1733–1794) wrote Theoria Generationis (1759) that disagreed with the idea of
preformation. He supported the doctrine of
epigenesis as a way to resolve the problem of hybrids (mule, hinny, apemen) in preformation.
1769.
Edward Bancroft (English) wrote An Essay on the Natural History of Guyana in South America (1769)[3] and advanced the theory that flies transmit disease.
1771.
Johann Reinhold Forster (German, 1729–1798) was the naturalist on Cook's second voyage around the world (1772–1775). He published a Catalogue of the Animals of North America (1771)[4] as an addendum to Kalm's Travels. He also studied the birds of
Hudson Bay.
1775.
Johan Christian Fabricius (Danish, 1745–1808) wrote Systema Entomologiae (1775), Genera Insectorum (1776), Philosophia Entomologica (1778), Entomologia Systematica (1792–1794, in six vols.), and later publications (to 1805), to make Fabricius one of the world's greatest entomologists.
1780.
Lazaro Spallanzani (Italian, 1729–1799) performed
artificial fertilization in the frog, silkmoth and dog. He concluded from filtration experiments that spermatozoa were necessary for fertilization. In 1783 he showed that human
digestion was a
chemical process since
gastric juices in and outside the body liquefied food (meat). He used himself as the experimental animal. His work to disprove spontaneous generation in microbes was resisted by
John Needham (English priest, 1713–1781).
1783–1792.
Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira (Brazilian) wrote Viagem Filosófica pelas Captanias do Grão-Pará, Rio Negro, Mato Grosso e Cuiabá. His specimens were taken by
Saint-Hilaire from
Lisbon to the
Paris Museum during the Napoleonic invasion of Portugal.
1784.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German) wrote Erster Entwurf einer Einleitung in die vergleichende Anatomie (1795) that promoted the idea of archetypes to which animals should be compared.
1784.
Thomas Jefferson (American) wrote Notes on the State of Virginia (1784) that refuted some of Buffon's mistakes about New World fauna. As U.S. president, he dispatched the
Lewis and Clark Expedition to the American West (1804).
1788. The
First Fleet inaugurates British settlement of
Australia. Knowledge of Australia's unique zoology, including
marsupials and the
platypus, would revolutionize Western zoology.
1789?
Guillaume Antoine Olivier (French, 1756–1814) wrote Entomologie, or Histoire Naturelle des Insectes (1789).
1789.
George Shaw &
Frederick Polydore Nodder published The Naturalist's Miscellany: or coloured figures of natural objects drawn and described immediately from nature (1789–1813) in 24 volumes with hundreds of color plates.
1792.
François Huber made original observations on honeybees. In his Nouvelles Observations sur les Abeilles (1792) he noted that the first eggs laid by
queen bees develop into
drones if her
nuptial flight had been delayed and that her last eggs would also give rise to drones. He also noted that rare worker eggs develop into drones. This anticipated by over 50 years the discovery by
Jan Dzierżon that drones come from unfertilized eggs and queen and worker bees come from fertilized eggs.
1793.
Lazaro Spallanzani (Italian, 1729–1799) conducted experiments on the orientation of
bats and
owls in the dark.
1793.
Christian Konrad Sprengel (1750–1816) wrote Das entdeckte Geheimniss der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen (1793) that was a major work on insect
pollination of flowers, previously discovered in 1721 by
Philip Miller (1694–1771), the head gardener at Chelsea and author of the famous Gardener's Dictionary (1731–1804).
1794.
Erasmus Darwin (English, grandfather of
Charles Darwin) wrote Zoönomia, or the Laws of Organic Life (1794)[6] in which he advanced the idea that environmental influences could transform species.
1796–1829.
Pierre André Latreille (French, 1762–1833) sought to provide a "natural" system for the classification of animals, in his many monographs on invertebrates. Insectes de l'Amerique Equinoxiale (1811) was devoted to insects collected by
Humboldt and
Bonpland.
1799.
George Shaw (English) provided the first description of the duck-billed platypus.[7]Everard Home (1802) provided the first complete description.
1799–1803.
Alexander von Humboldt (German, 1769–1859) and
Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud Bonpland (French) arrived in Venezuela in 1799. Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America during the years 1799–1804[8] and Kosmos were influential in his time.
1799.
Georges Cuvier (French, 1769–1832) established
comparative anatomy as a field. He also founded the science of
paleontology. He wrote Leçons d'Anatomie Comparée (1801–1805), Le Règne Animal distribué d'après son organisation (1816), Ossemens Fossiles (1812–1813). He believed in the fixity of species and the
Biblical Flood. His early Tableau élémentaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux (1798) was influential, but it did not include Cuvier's major contributions to animal classification.
1799. American hunters killed the last
bison on the Eastern coast of the United States, in Pennsylvania.
19th century
1802.
Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (French, 1744–1829) wrote Recherches sur l'Organisation des Corps Vivants and Philosophie zoologique (1809). He was an early evolutionist and organized invertebrate paleontology. While Lamarck's contributions to science include work in
meteorology,
botany,
chemistry,
geology, and paleontology, he is best known for his work in invertebrate zoology and his theoretical work on evolution. He published a seven-volume work, Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres ("Natural history of animals without backbones"; 1815–1822).
1813–1818.
William Charles Wells (Scottish-American, 1757–1817) was the first to recognise the principle of
natural selection. He read a paper to the
Royal Society in 1813 (but not published until 1818) which used the idea to explain differences between
human races. The application was limited to the question of how different skin colours arose.
1815.
William Kirby and
William Spence (English) wrote An Introduction to Entomology (first edition in 1815). This was the first modern entomology text.
1817. Publication of American Entomology by
Thomas Say, the first work devoted to American insects. A greatly expanded three-volume edition would appear 1824–1828. Say was a systematic zoologist who moved to the utopian community at
New Harmony, Indiana, in 1825. Most of his insect collections have been recovered.
1817–1820.
Johann Baptist von Spix (German, 1781–1826) and
Carl Friedrich Philipp von Martius (German) conducted Brazilian zoological and botanical explorations (1817–1820). See their Reise in Brasilien auf Befehl Sr. Majestät Maximilian Joseph I König von Bayern in den Jahren 1817 bis 1820 gemacht und beschrieben (3 vols., 1823–1831).
1817.
William Smith, in his Strategraphical System of Organized Fossils (1817) showed that certain strata have characteristic series of fossils.
1819
William Lawrence (English, 1783–1867) published a book of his lectures to the
Royal College of Surgeons. The book contains a rejection of
Lamarckism (
soft inheritance), proto-evolutionary ideas about the origin of mankind, and a denial of the 'Jewish scriptures' (
Old Testament). He was forced to suppress the book after the Lord Chancellor refused copyright and other powerful men made threatening remarks.
1819.
Malayan tapir, a first species of
tapir to be discovered, is described.
1824. Publication of the French physician
Henri Dutrochet's Mémoires pour servir a l'histoire anatomique et physiologique des végétaux et des animaux setting forth a physiological theory of the cell.
1824. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (
RSPCA) is founded at London.
1824. Founding of the
Zoological Journal, the first English-language journal of zoology. The last issue would appear in 1834.
1825.
Gideon Mantell (English) wrote "Notice on the Iguanodon, a newly discovered fossil reptile, from the sandstone of Tilgate Forest, in Sussex" (Phil. Trans. Roy, Soc. Lond., 115: 179–186), the first paper on
dinosaurs. The name dinosaur was coined by anatomist
Richard Owen.
1826–1839.
John James Audubon (Haitian-born American, 1785–1851) wrote Birds of America (1826–1839), with North American bird portraits and studies. See also his posthumously published volume on North American mammals written with his sons and the naturalist
John Bachman, The Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America (1845–1854) with 150 folio plates.
1827.
Karl Ernst von Baer (Russian embryologist, 1792–1876) was the founder of comparative embryology. He demonstrated the existence of the mammalian ovum, and he proposed the germ-layer theory. His major works include De ovi mammalium et hominis genesi (1827) and Über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Tiere (1828; 1837).
1828. The Zoological Society of London opens its "zoo" to the public (later known as the
London Zoo) for two days a week beginning April 27, 1828, with the first
hippopotamus to be seen in Europe since the ancient Romans showed one at the
Colosseum. This was the first modern zoo founded for scientific research and education.
1830–1833. Sir
Charles Lyell (English, 1797–1875) writes Principles of Geology and described the time required for evolution to work. Darwin took this book to sea on
HMS Beagle.
1832.
Thomas Nuttall (1786–1859) writes A Manual of the Ornithology of the United States and Canada (1832) that becomes the standard text on the subject for most of the 19th century.
1835.
William Swainson (English, 1789–1855) writes A Treatise on the Geography and Classification of Animals (1835), in which he uses ad hoc
land bridges to explain animal distributions. He includes some second-hand observations on Old World
army ants.
1835. Founding of the
Archiv für Naturgeschichte, the premier German-language journal of natural history with an emphasis on zoology. It would be published until 1926.
1839.
Theodor Schwann (German, 1810–1882) writes Mikroskopischen Untersuchungen über die Übereinstimmungen in der Strucktur und dem Wachstum der Thiere und Pflanzen (1839). Schwann established the foundation for
cell theory.
1839.
Louis Agassiz (Swiss-American, 1807–1873), an expert on fossil fishes, founds the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Harvard University, and becomes Darwin's North American opposition. He was a popularizer of natural history. His Nomenclator Zoologicus (1842–1847) was a pioneering effort.
1840.
Jan Evangelista Purkyně, a Czech physiologist in
Wrocław proposes that the word "protoplasm" be applied to the formative material of young animal embryos.
1842. Baron
Justus von Liebig writes Die Thierchemie in which he suggests that animal heat is produced by combustion, and founds the science of
biochemistry.
1843.
John James Audubon, age 58, ascends the
Missouri River to Fort Union at the mouth of the Yellowstone to sketch wild animals.
1844.
Robert Chambers (Scottish, 1802–1871) writes the Vestiges of the Natural History of Creation (1844) in which he includes early evolutionary considerations. This book, anonymously published, has a profound effect on Alfred Russel Wallace.
1848.
Alfred Russel Wallace (British, 1823–1913) and
Henry W. Bates (English, 1825–1892) arrive in the
Amazon River valley in 1848. Bates stays until 1859, exploring the upper Amazon. Wallace remains in the Amazon until 1852, exploring the
Rio Negro. Wallace writes A Narrative of Travels on the Amazon and Rio Negro (1853), and Bates writes The Naturalist on the River Amazons (1863). Later (1854–1862), Wallace travels to the Far East, as he reports in The Malay Archipelago (1869).
1850.
Thomas Hardwicke (British naturalist) is the first European to discover the
lesser panda (Ailurus fulgens) in northern India.
1855.
Alfred Russel Wallace (English, 1823–1913) publishes On the law which has regulated the introduction of new species (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., September 1855), with evolutionary ideas that drew upon Wallace's experiences in the Amazon.
1857–1881.
Henri Milne-Edwards (French, 1800–1885) introduces the idea of physiologic division of labor and writes a treatise on comparative anatomy and physiology (1857–1881).
1865.
Gregor Mendel demonstrates in
pea plants that inheritance follows
definite rules. The Principle of Segregation states that each organism has two
genes per trait, which segregate when the organism makes eggs or sperm. The Principle of Independent Assortment states that each gene in a pair is distributed independently during the formation of eggs or sperm. Mendel's observations went largely unnoticed.
1876.
Oskar Hertwig and
Hermann Fol independently describe (in
sea urchin eggs) the entry of sperm into the egg and the subsequent fusion of the egg and sperm nuclei to form a single new nucleus.
1892.
Hans Driesch separates the individual cells of a 2-cell sea urchin embryo, and shows that each cell develops into a complete individual, thus disproving the theory of preformation, and demonstrating that each cell is "totipotent," containing all the hereditary information necessary to form an individual.
1963. Premier of the popular American zoological documentary series
Wild Kingdom on the NBC television network. 140 episodes would appear before the series ended in 1988.
1972.
Stephen Jay Gould and
Niles Eldredge propose "
punctuated equilibrium," a theory which states that the fossil record is an accurate depiction of the pace of evolution, with long periods of "stasis" (little change) punctuated by brief periods of rapid change and species
divergence.
1990. American entomologist
E. O. Wilson and German entomologist
Bert Hölldobler publish
The Ants. The next year it will win the
Pulitzer Prize for non-fiction, the only zoology textbook ever to do so.
^Charles A. Reed. Animal Domestication in the Prehistoric Near East: The origins and history of domestication are beginning to emerge from archeological excavations. Science, Vol. 130, no. 3389 (December 11, 1959), pp. 1629–1639
^Alexandra Kerbl, Nicolas Bekkouche, Wolfgang Sterrer & Katrine Worsaae, "Detailed reconstruction of the nervous and muscular system of Lobatocerebridae with an evaluation of its annelid affinity", BMC Evolutionary Biology volume 15, Article number: 277 (2015),
https://bmcecolevol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12862-015-0531-x