Serious evolutionary thinking originated with the works of who was the first to present a coherent theory of evolution. He posited that evolution was the result of environmental stress on properties of animals,meaning that the more frequently and rigorously an organ was used,the more complex and efficient it would become, thus adapting the animal to its environment. Lamarck believed that these acquired traits could then be passed on to the animal's offspring, who would further develop and perfect them. However,it was the British naturalist, combining the biogeographical approach of the uniformitarian geology of writings on population growth, and his own morphological expertise and extensive natural observations, who forged a more successful evolutionary theory based on; similar reasoning and evidence led to independently reach the same conclusions. Although it was the subject of (which continues to this day), Darwin's theory quickly spread through the scientific community and soon became a centtral axiom of the rapidly developing science of biology.