Charles Darwin's Grandfather Erasmus Darwin, an English Physician and Philosopher

question 4

Multiple Choice

Charles Darwin's grandfather Erasmus Darwin, an English physician and philosopher, was one of the first to propose an idea of evolutionary change. What did he propose?

• A) He proposed that all life developed from what he called a single living filament, which was modified in endless ways over millions of years.
• B) He proposed that diversity was a result of modification and that traits acquired during the lifetime of an organism were passed down to its progeny resulting in increased diversity.
• C) He proposed that life arose multiple times through spontaneous formation and that diversity arose from the influence of the different environments where formation occurred.
• D) He proposed that each branch of life, or kingdom, resulted from accumulation of change, originating with different filaments for each kingdom.