De Maillet was born in France and grew up listening to his grandfather describe how the sea level had changed throughout his lifetime. Greatly influenced by such observations of the natural world, he dedicated himself to the study of natural history and geology while working as a diplomat in Egypt. He was convinced the Earth was much older than was suggested by theologians.

Maillet developed a naïve theory of evolution. Not daring to publish under his own name, he ascribed his ideas to an Indian philosopher named Telliam (Maillet written backward). His theory suggested that the Earth was 2 billion years old and that water originally covered its entire surface. He explained that the water level receded by one meter every thousand years, slowly revealing the Earth’s mountain ranges. As the mountains dried out, grasses and plants appeared. He argued that the humid air allowed flying fish to survive outside the water. These fish would later use their fins to move onto firm ground. The fins then became legs, and all other animals evolved from these fish with feet. He imagined that human beings appeared 500,000 years ago but failed to give more details.

His ideas were not well-received; he was accused of putting pagan ideas into an Indian man’s head. Voltaire himself said that he disagreed with Maillet. Nonetheless, Maillet’s ideas did appear to spread among his contemporaries. What Maillet was proposing captured the minds of many.