Jean Baptiste Lamarck Research Paper

Darwin, an English geologist and naturalist from the 1800’s, is best known for his contributions to science and mainly his theory of evolution. He was the first scientist to develop a believable theory of evolution by

A more simplistic way of thinking of evolution is “descent with modification” which is essentially stating, over many generations, organisms change. Charles Darwin and Jean Baptiste Lamarck are often referred to as the fore founders of evolution. Of course, many, many other scientists had differing theories regarding evolution, but Darwin and Lamarck receive the most modern attention- both deserving credit for their concepts. They’re famous not for the propositions of evolution- that had already been theorised. They’re famous for providing a reasonable explanation for how evolution occurs- natural selection. In which we will delve into later.

At the beginning of the 1800s, scientists knew of some kinds of fossils, and were very aware of homologous and vestigial structures. Many scientists suspected that some kind of evolution had given rise to living things around them. However, they had no theory to explain how evolution might have occurred. Two scientists led the way in the search for a mechanism of evolution. The first was Jean Lamarck. The second was one of the greatest figures in biology, Charles Darwin.

Alfred Russel Wallace may not be well known outside of the scientific community, but his contributions to the Theory of Evolution were invaluable to Charles Darwin. In fact, Wallace and Darwin collaborated on the idea of natural selection and presented their own findings jointly to the Linnean Society in London. Alfred Russel Wallace has become not much more than a footnote in history in that regard due to Darwin publishing his book On the Origin of Species before Wallace could publish his work.

Charles Darwin believed in Evolution and natural selection. Evolution according to Charles Darwin was that all life is related in some way and has descended from a common ancestor. As random genetic mutations occur in an organism’s genetic code, the beneficial mutations aid in survival – this is called natural selection. Organisms that develop random mutations are better adapted to their environment and tend to survive and produce more offspring. Lamarck’s viewpoint on evolution was the law of use and disuse. He hypothesised that organisms react to changes in their environment by changing or strengthening a certain organ. Whilst an organ will stop working or disappear if it is stopped being used. The fault is this theory was that it could not explain how these strengthened or unused organs are passed on to other generations of the same organism. Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is right, but Lamarck wasn’t far off the mark. A good example of Lamarck’s law of use and disuse in the Homo sapiens is that of the appendix. The appendix is an organ which is commonly believed to have ‘stopped working’, this organ was the remnant of large fermenting gut for plant life. This organ has ceased to work as Homo sapiens have stopped eating plant matter and started to eat organisms consisting of meat. This somewhat strengthens Lamarck’s

Lamarckian(p. 12, para. 2)- “Reference to Lamarch’s ideas, popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, that evolution takes

Evolution has been a very debatable topic since the theory of evolution first evolved. By definition, evolution is “the process by which different kinds of living organism are believed to have developed from earlier forms during the history of the earth”, but there are many different types of “evolution” such as coevolution, divergent, parallel and convergent – all with different theories. Jean Baptiste Lamarck was a French naturalist who invented the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics (aka. “soft inheritance”). This evolutionary theory described how the natural environment affected the way an animal used their body parts. The features used regularly or for survival are passed onto the creatures offspring, and the parts that weren’t used, weren’t. On the other hand, another English naturalist Charles Darwin established a theory of “natural selection”. A process in which creatures that survived in their environment would pass their genes through the generations, compared to the weaker species with a lower survival rate, who reproduce less offspring or none.

Through his research, Lamarck observed many similarities in the different types of animals he studied, these fascinated him and allowed him to draw his own scientific conclusions. First, he believed life was not a fixed system and that “When environments changed, organisms had to change their behavior to survive.” In short, he believed the body would understand how to adapt to different environments over generations. He believed these adaptions were a process that the body was trying to form to eventually make the perfect generation of

For example,”He provided clear and logical explanations to salts,bases,and acids”(“famous bios”). “He developed the modern ingredients to the periodic table”(“famous bios”). “Lavoisier found that living beings create heat”(“famous bios”). As a result, Antoine Lavoisier fits himself into one of the best,smartest, and richest chemist the world will ever

Charles Darwin is the founding father of evolution. Charles Darwin believed that the origin of species was set at random. That we were made by time taking its course and the joining of atoms and bacteria over time made us into where we are now. His idea was that we were created by natural selection. This brought a huge contradiction to the Christian church, it brought a different type of mind set which was against what they were taught of God. Charles Darwin brought something so new that caused a revolution in his generation even until now. Speaking from the perspective of a Christian I can see how he might have angered people during his time. He brought a new theory trying to dis prove God. Explaining how that through natural selection the

Jean Lamarck born in 1744 in France (Charton. B, 2009) and became one of the most known scientists of all time. He was pushed towards a career in the church and attended a Jesuit college in the late 1750s, he then went on to pursue a career in the military before being decommissioned due to injury. After arriving home, Lamarck pursued his passion for botany and released the first dichotomous key, after a while Lamarck turned his interest to the animal kingdom in particular evolution (Packard, A.S,1901).Lamarck was one of the earliest evolutionary scientists, and not unlike many other evolutionary scientists Jean Lamarck established that organisms adapt to their environment. Lamarck formed a theory to try and explain this phenomenon. Similarly

Jean Baptiste de Lamarck developed his theory of evolution – transformation – in 1809. He became interested in how organisms evolved when he embarked a military career, after his father’s death, in 1761 (Encyclopaedia Britannica). As a soldier he became interested in collecting

Lamarck was astonished by the correspondence between the various animals that he examined, and was also inspired by the developing fossil evidence. Considering all this, he concluded that life was not fixed. Species are not immutable. Rather, they change. In an effort to survive, organisms had to alter their behavior to accommodate to the pressures of the ever- changing environment conditions. If they began to use a specific organ, it would be preserved and therefore passed on to the offspring. For example, if a giraffe reached after higher and higher leaves, its neck would be stretched and would grow slightly longer. Its offspring would then inherit the lengthened neck and this process would be

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1755-1829) is one of the best-known early evolutionists, holding a belief that evolution was a continuous development and strived toward greater complexity and perfection. Through which, his theory of evolution was that living organisms evolved in a unceasingly up ward direction, from dead matter, through simple to more complex forms and towards human “perfection” (Nesci.edu, 2015). From his theories of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics; where organisms adapt to their environments and those changes were passed onto their off springs (Corbis, 2001), to his theories of Use and Disuse, where organisms that are not used progressively disappear (Evolution.berkeley.edu, 2015). Lamarck was the first biologist to publish

Many knowledge claims in human and natural science are based on theories. Jean Lamarck proposed the theory of evolution in 1801. The theory of evolution proposed by Lamarck was based on the idea that organisms had to change their behavior to survive. For instance, if a giraffe stretched it neck for a long period of time to reach the leaves as the top of the tree, then a “nervous fluid” would flow in the neck and make it longer. Thus, its