They didn’t know that the boundaries between species aren’t unsurmountable
This is anachronistic. Ancients believed that the boundaries between some species were weaker than we do today, for example, that oats were degenerate barley.
I don’t know to what extent they thought species were transmutable. But they didn’t think it impossible.
Just as their false belief that the Earth was eternal may have enabled them to figure out evolution had they thought more clearly, so too with some of their other false beliefs, such as that some species could easily turn into another.
This is anachronistic. Ancients believed that the boundaries between some species were weaker than we do today, for example, that oats were degenerate barley.
I don’t know to what extent they thought species were transmutable. But they didn’t think it impossible.
Just as their false belief that the Earth was eternal may have enabled them to figure out evolution had they thought more clearly, so too with some of their other false beliefs, such as that some species could easily turn into another.
Or maybe not. It’s worth thinking about.