Question

How might the following naturalists have explained the physical and/or behavioural characteristics of the bat? Where would they disagree and what criticisms would they offer each other? Note that they would have to explain it in their own time, so modern concepts that outdate them would not be applicable in their descriptions.

1. John Ray and/or William Paley (natural theology)

2. Georges Cuvier

3. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

4. Charles Darwin

Answer 1

1. John Ray and/or William Paley (natural theology):

The Natural Theology also known as the Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity in the year 1802 which is a work of the christian chrisgenetics and the philosophy of religion. It was done by an English cleegyman William Paley (1743-1805) in which he argued that these all led to an intelligent Creator and is more than rhe sum of its parts. With the natural theology, Paley thought to improve the work of John Ray's Wisdom of God Manifested in the Works of the Creation.

2. Georges Cuvier:

Georges Cuvier on his The Theory of the Earth (1813), he proposed that now- extinct species had been wiped out by the periodic catastrophic flooding events that took place. At that time Cuvier became the most influential proponent of catastrophism in geology in the 19th century.

3. Jean - Baptise Lamarck:

Jean Baptiste Lamarck is popularly known for his Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics. The first book was published in the year of 1801. If an organism change during the life to adapt itself to the environment, then those characters are pass on to it's progeny.

4. Charles Darwin:

In 1859, Charles Darwin proposed The theory of evolution by natural selection and formulated it in the " On the Origin of Species" . It is the process by which the organism change over timw as a result of the change in heritable behavioural or physical traits. The changes that allows the organism or species to better adapt themselves to the environment for survival and to reproduce.