Darwin's Greatest Influence

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.>.