Question

Thomas Huxley introduced a misleading term he used to explain gaps in the fossil record & William King introduced a new species name Homo neandertalensis, contradicting which ideas and concepts in the 1800's and throughout much of the 1900's for many?

Answer 1

Thomas Huxley introduced terms pertaining to gaps in the fossil record, and William King named Homo neandertalensis, which both challenged static views of Earth's history and the progression of human ancestry in the 1800s.

Step-by-step explanation:

The contributions of Thomas Huxley and William King introduced scientific concepts that contradicted the fixed and static views of natural history and human origins that were prevalent in the 1800s. Huxley's term for gaps in the fossil record suggested that our understanding of evolutionary history was incomplete, challenging the idea that the fossil record should display a neat and orderly progression of life forms. Similarly, the introduction of the species name Homo neandertalensis by William King highlighted the existence of other human species and contradicted the then-dominant belief in a single, unbroken lineage leading neatly from ancient to modern humans.

The discoveries of Huxley and King were part of a larger shift in scientific understanding that included the work of naturalists like Robert Hooke and groundbreaking geologists such as James Hutton and Charles Lyell. These scientists proposed that the Earth and its life forms had undergone enormous changes over vast periods of time, a radical departure from the biblical account of creation that dominated the period.