The presentation aims at providing a comprehensive view of the differentiated stances of some of Portugal’s most prominent zoologists towards evolution during the late 19th century and most of the 20th century. Due to the extension of the presentation, we decided to limit our subject to the leading zoologists that conducted research and lectured at the University of Coimbra. Thus, the zoologists under analysis are: Bernardo Aires (1868-1931), João Gualberto de Barros e Cunha (1865-1950), Francisco Ferrand de Almeida (1931-) and Maria Manuela Assalino (1929-). It is important to notice that the University of Coimbra was Portugal’s only university until 1911 and that, in 1865, it’s Faculty of Philosophy was the stage of the introduction of Darwinism into Portuguese Science with Júlio Augusto Henriques’ (1838-1928) PhD thesis Are species modifiable? (1865). First, to guarantee a proper understanding of our subject, we present a brief historical sketch on the history of evolutionary thought and a synthetic exposition on the reception of evolutionary ideas in Portugal during the late 19th century, with special attention to the natural sciences. Second, we introduce some biographical information on the zoologists under analysis. Third, we evaluate the influence of evolutionary theory upon the scientific production each zoologist. Fourth, we carry out a comparative analysis of their differentiated stances towards evolution. In what terms did the zoologists acknowledge the relevance of evolutionary theory to their discipline? To what extent did evolution influence their original scientific research? Did they discuss evolutionary topics in their classes? Were they well informed about the most recent developments of evolutionary biology of their time? Did they address the implications of evolutionary theory upon other fields besides zoology? These are some of the main questions we will seek to provide with answers. In order to provide a wider view of the influence of evolutionary theory upon Portuguese zoologists, the presentation is complemented with a brief reference to the stances towards evolution of other 19th and 20th century prominent Portuguese zoologists working in other institutions besides the University of Coimbra, such as António Machado (1883-1969) from the University of Oporto and Germano da Fonseca Sacarrão (1914-1992) from the University of Lisbon.

This presentation is based on work co-authored by João Rui Pita and Ana Leonor Pereira.