The below comes from a a better read than theguardian promo for a new book. According to Buffon, life originated already divided into a number of distinct type

The below comes from a a better read than theguardian promo for a new book. According to Buffon, life originated already divided into a number of distinct types—an “internal mould” that organized the organic particles that made up any individual creature. But during migrations, life changed. As a species moved to new habitats, the supply of organic particles that could create new individuals changed, and the particles could thereby change a species’ mould. Buffon was, in other words, proposing a sort of proto-evolution. While he thought that this process couldn’t produce radically new kinds of body plans, he did claim that it could account for the geographical distribution of similar species around the world. https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-history-of-evolutionary-thought/pre-1800/old-earth-ancient-life-georges-louis-leclerc-comte-de-buffon/ https://evolution.berkeley.edu/the-history-of-evolutionary-t...