Frédéric Gérard

Frédéric Gérard (1806–1857) was a French botanist and early evolutionary thinker.

Gérard was influenced by the ideas of Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.^[1] He was editor in chief of Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle, which he contributed to.^[2] He authored Extraits du Dictionnaire universel d'histoire naturelle. In 1845, in the Dictionnaire, he coined the expression "theory of the evolution of organized beings".^[2] Science historian Goulven Laurent argued that Gérard was the first to propose a clear scientific theory of evolution (1844-1845), and that he used the term "evolution" rather than transformism.^[3] By evolution, Gérard was referring to transformation of species over time by direct pressure from a changing environment.^[4] Charles Darwin had read an extract "Geographie zoologique" from this work in 1845.^[5]