- Charles Lyell was a British Geologist and Lawyer.

- He proposed that the earth's crust formed through numerous small changes that occurred over long periods of time.

Contributions to Darwin's Theory of Evolution

Charles Lyell (1797-1875)

Darwin read Lyell's text, The Principles of Geology, while on board The Beagle, and was inspired by it. The motto used for Lyell's uniformitarian science stated "The present is the key to the past."
Darwin was greatly influenced by Lyell, and applied this principle to biology. He inferred that species, like geological features, evolved and died out gradually.