Question

The ideas of Hutton and Lyell that Darwin incorporated into his theory concerned ______.

Options

• the age of Earth and gradual geological processes producing profound change

• extinctions evident in the fossil record

• adaptation of species to the environment

• the inheritance of acquired characteristics

Answer 1

The ideas of Hutton and Lyell that Darwin incorporated into his theory concerned the age of Earth and gradual geological processes producing profound change.

Explanation:

Hutton and Lyell proposed the concept of uniformitarianism, which states that the Earth is very old and that slow, gradual geological processes such as erosion, sedimentation, and volcanic activity have shaped the Earth’s surface over long periods of time. Darwin applied this understanding to biology, realizing that similarly gradual changes over vast timescales could explain the evolution of species through natural selection. This was crucial because it provided the vast time period necessary for evolutionary processes to occur.