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Jul 11, 2024 · Lamarckism, a theory of evolution based on the principle that physical changes in organisms during their lifetime—such as greater development of an organ or a part through increased use—could be transmitted to their offspring.
Lamarck believed that the long necks of giraffes evolved as generations of giraffes reached for ever higher leaves. Lamarck was struck by the similarities of many of the animals he studied, and was impressed too by the burgeoning fossil record. It led him to argue that life was not fixed.
According to Lamarck's theory, a given giraffe could, over a lifetime of straining to reach high branches, develop an elongated neck. A major downfall of his theory was that he could not explain how this might happen, though he discussed a "natural tendency toward perfection."
The idea is named after the French zoologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), who incorporated the classical era theory of soft inheritance into his theory of evolution as a supplement to his concept of orthogenesis, a drive towards complexity.
Jul 11, 2024 · Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, pioneering French biologist who is best known for his idea that acquired characters are inheritable, an idea known as Lamarckism, which is refuted by modern genetics and evolutionary theory.
Jun 17, 2019 · “Evolution” in contemporary discussions denotes the theory of the change of organic species over time. Prior to the second half of the nineteenth century, the term was used primarily, if not exclusively, in an embryological sense to designate the development of the individual embryo.
Jean Baptiste Lamarck argued for a very different view of evolution than Darwin's. Lamarck believed that simple life forms continually came into existence from dead matter...
