Which naturalist proposed that animals migrate and adapt to different climates but offered no mechanism for evolution, and argued that New World fauna were weaker and smaller?

• A. Buffon
• B. Cuvier
• C. Lamarck
• D. Darwin

Answer: (A)

This question tests understanding of pre-D Darwinian ideas about how species change. Buffon argued that climate and geography could shape animals, with species migrating and adapting to different environments, but he did not provide a mechanism that explains how traits are inherited and accumulate over generations. He also claimed that New World fauna were weaker and smaller than Old World fauna, reflecting a regional bias rather than a universal process of evolution. This sets Buffon apart from others: Cuvier stressed fixed types and catastrophic change, Lamarck proposed a mechanism (inheritance of acquired traits) for evolution, and Darwin would later articulate natural selection as the driving process.