Thanks for your valuable input. I hate to say it but you are right. The level of detail in both the lead and the main article are too much. If History of biology can fit into 75K History of evolutionary thought should fit into less than 60K I will try and break out detail into child articles. I can already see "Evolutioanry ideas of the Enlightenment" and "Eclipse of Darwinism" (or perhaps just "Alternatives to natural slection") coming. I also see a bunch of detail moving to transmutation of species, and there is probably too much overlap with Modern evolutionary synthesis now as well. You have given me quite a bit to chew on.