Jean-Baptiste Lamark

Blog Post #1


Jean-Baptiste Lamark




Of the many important influences Charles Darwin had in creating his theory on evolution, I would argue that Jean-Baptiste Lamark is the most important. Lamark, born in 1744, was a zoologist and a biologist who wrote a major book on vertebrae's. Although during his lifetime Lamark was not well respected by the scientific community (largely due to the fact that there were many flaws in his works), he was one of the first people to discover evolution. Lamark focused on the inheritance of characteristics from different species which was adapted by Darwin to become what he called natural selection. This idea that changes that occurred over the duration of one lifetime could be inherited was revolutionary at the time and looked down upon by most.




The points that are most affected by Lamark's works are "If the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to the environment will be different," and "In order for traits to evolve and change, they MUST be heritable." The first point basically describes natural selection saying that helpful traits will come as a result of the environment around a specific organism. If birds grow longer beaks it is a result of their need to poke deeper holes into trees or the giraffe that stretches its neck to eat its tall leaves. It is either adapt in order to get the necessary food or die. The second point was also influenced by Lamark as he is regarded for discovering the inheritance of characteristics. Traits needed to be passed down to offspring so that real change, evolution, could occur. His most famous example is that of the hungry giraffe. According to Lamarck, originally the giraffe had a pretty short neck. After one lifetime of stretching his neck to reach the tall leaves, his neck slightly grew and that growth was inherited by that giraffes offspring. After many generations of stretching, the neck came to the length it is today. On the other hand, organs that are not used, Lamark claims, start to shrink and will eventually go away.


I do not believe Darwin could have developed his theory of natural selection without the influence of Lamark at all because Lamark was the one who originally discovered it. Not to mention Darwin is quoted with saying, "Lamark was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention." It was Lamark's discoveries that first inspired Darwin, otherwise I do not believe Darwin could have concluded his theory of natural selection


The church had a lot of influence on Darwin's works. Since his book On the Origin of Species refuted much of the Bible and what the Church preached, it was very controversial. It immediately caused debate around the world between scientists, the Church and many other intellectuals of the time. Leading up to the publication of his book, Darwin knew that many Christians believed that the Earth was only a few thousand years old and interpreted the Bible literally and so this would be the first case of going against biblical teachings. He avoided publishing the book for a long time because he wanted to be able to thoroughly defend all his points and he was also a little scared of the Church. He also knew what had happened to scientists before him like Galileo who refuted the Church in his works and received serious consequences. Eventually though Darwin released his book which explores one of the most important discoveries of all time.














http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_09