You should be able to be able to discuss ideas about the relationships between living things that were suggested prior to the 19th century.

You should be able to appreciate that there were many who supported the concept of evolution prior to Darwin and Wallace, and, from Lamarck, there was a suggested evolutionary mechanism, albeit an incorrect one.

You should be able to desciribe the history of Darwin’s creation of the theory of natural selection, the influence of Cuvier, Malthus and Lyell, and the independent discovery of the idea by Alfred Russel Wallace.

You should be able to understand the three elements of Darwin’s theory of variation, competition and inheritance, while appreciating that Darwin did not know of the particulate theory of inheritance being developed by Gregor Mendel.