Darwin’s
Greatest Influence
I
think that Jean-Baptiste Lamarck helped influence and shape Darwin’s work.
Lamarck laid down the foundation about evolution and pointed Darwin in the
right direction.
Lamarck
is very important because he created the terms biology and invertebrates.
Lamarck was a French naturalist who was born in 1744 and died very poor in
1829. For 10 years Lamarck studied invertebrates. He learned about their
population numbers, diversity, and how they reproduced. In 1809 he published Philosophie
Zoologique, which talks about his theories of evolution. Many scientists
like Baffon and Cuvier did not like his theories and did whatever they could to
discredit him. Lamarckism refers to his theory that acquired traits can be
inherited. He believed that if the environment changes, then organisms have to
change. When their behavior is altered it causes a greater or lesser use of an
organ or structure. Our textbook uses giraffes as an example to explain his
theory.
Lamarck’s
theories fall under a few points of “how does evolution work”. The first is if
the environment changes, traits that are helpful or adaptive will be different.
Lamarck thought that giraffes have long necks because they had to keep reaching
into the trees to get food because all the food was high up in the trees. This
caused their necks to experience more use, and as a result it grew longer. Even
though this theory is wrong, it helped Darwin discover the right answer. The
second point Lamarck’s theories fall under is traits must be inheritable. The
giraffes with longer necks were able to eat more food and reproduce more than
giraffes with short necks. Lamarck did not realize that populations evolve, not
individuals.
I
do not think that Darwin would have made all his theories about evolution and
natural selection without Lamarck’s help. Lamarck was the first to connect
changes in organisms with the environment. Darwin was able to fix Lamarck’s
theory about how giraffes got their long necks. He observed that neck size in
the giraffe population varies. Over time food becomes harder to reach because all
the lower leaves were eaten. The giraffes with longer necks were able to eat
the food higher up in the trees. They passed this trait to their offspring and
over time the neck size in giraffes increased.
During
Darwin’s time the church still had a lot of influence over people. The
people in England were scared that evolution would rip apart society and cause
people to become savages. As a result Darwin was hesitant about publishing his
research. He did not want his peers to laugh at him and his theories. Darwin
finally got the courage to publish when Alfred Russel Wallace came up with the
same ideas. If Darwin did not publish when he did, Wallace probably would have been
given credit for Darwin’s discoveries.
Work
Cited
Waggoner,
Ben, Brian Speer. “Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829)”. University of California
Museum of Paleontology. 9 Oct. 1998. Web. 27 Aug. 2013. < http://www.ucmp. berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html.>.
