Georges Louis Leclerc Comte de Buffon was first and foremost a mathematician who helped invent calculus. While most of his works focused on statistics and probability, he did influence Charles Darwin with his thoughts on how life on Earth originated and changed over time.

How did Buffon contribute to the theory of evolution?

Buffon's idea that species change over time has become the cornerstone of the modern of evolutionary theory. His technique of comparing similar structures across different species, called comparative anatomy, is used today in the study of evolution and is discussed in evidence of evolution.

How did Buffon theory influence Darwin?

Georges Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon influenced Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's ideas of Natural Selection. He incorporated ideas of "lost species" that Darwin studied and related to fossils. Biogeography is now often used as a form of evidence for the existence of evolution.