Biological evolution

Buffon was the first to speculate openly about evolution in a book called "Natural History", where he imagined an evolution in reverse: apes as degenerate humans, donkeys as degenerate horses, jackals as degenerate wolves. He was wrong, but it implied that species could change over time.
 Louis Leclerc de Buffon France 1749 Biological evolution

Buffon was the first to speculate openly about evolution in a book called "Natural History", where he imagined an evolution in reverse: apes as degenerate humans, donkeys as degenerate horses, jackals as degenerate wolves. He was wrong, but it implied that species could change over time.