Jean-Baptiste Lamarck had the most influence over Darwin's development the Natural Selection Theory, as he was the first person to attempt to explain the evolutionary process. He believed that species change was influenced by environmental change and that is precisely what the building blocks to Darwin's take on evolutionary theory are. According to the Berkley website, Charles Darwin wrote of Lamarck, "Lamarck was the first man whose conclusions on the subject excited much attention. This justly celebrated naturalist first published his views in 1801. . . he first did the eminent service of arousing attention to the probability of all changes in the organic, as well as in the inorganic world, being the result of law, and not of miraculous interposition.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's idea that if the external environment changed then an animal's behavior and physical patterns would also change to accommodate the new environment contributed to the scientific community. This was the connection between the species change and environment change and the basic idea of evolution. It didn't turn out to be exactly correct, but his theory, known as the "inheritance of acquired characteristics," explains that there would be an increase or decrease in the use of specific body parts of an animal based on the biological and environmental need. If the animal didn't use a certain body part, it would disappear over time and the parts that continued to be used would change over time to suit the animals basic needs in its environment. Although Lamarck's theory turned out to be false, he essentially got the ball rolling for future thought and research on the matter. Lamarck also contributed to the scientific community the term "biology."
"In order for traits to evolve and change, they MUST be heritable," is most directly affected by Lamarck's work. His theory suggested that the trait changes were passed on to the next offspring. We now know this to be untrue because according to the text book, "only the traits that are influenced by genetic information contained within sex cells can be inherited." Therefore, they must be heritable. The "fluid or blending inheritance" theory from Lamarck became a problem for Darwin though, because he did not know how the traits were passed on.
I think Darwin was able to expand into his theories and ideas because of Lamarck's idea that species and environment were linked in regards to evolution. It is possible that Darwin would have come up with his take without this influence, but I really think that Larmarck's suggestions fostered the growth of Darwin's theory.
Darwin held back on publicizing any of his ideas or his book because of the attitudes of Church during this time. The Church was opposed to anything that might contradict the creation of any species by anything other than God. Darwin's ideas suggested that humans were another species, just like animals and the Church ideas at the time were that humans were unique and unrelated to animals. Since Darwin came from a well known family and his family name was well regarded, he was afraid to share his discoveries publicly.
Hello Bethany,
ReplyDeleteGreat job on the post! I had a vague understanding of Jean- Baptiste Lamark and his contributions to Darwin and the world of science. I obviously wasn’t paying as close attention to his theory as I thought because I didn’t realize that he had made the connection between the habitat and the inhabitant. It makes sense how the environment and the organisms struggling to succeed in it, are linked. I do see how Darwin would accept the notion that although the exact trait may not be passed from one parent to its direct offspring, over time desirable traits will become more pronounced and those less desirable will eventually disappear. I read somewhere that the use of our pinky toe will eventually be obsolete and disappear. This kind of fits with what Lamarck was trying to convey, although his thoughts on how it happened were a bit off. I especially enjoyed your point of view and personal thoughts in your blog, something that I didn’t do, but after reading yours, wish I have. Looking forward to reading future posts.
Lynnet Rodriguez (Now Walking Upright)
That was very thorough. I especially liked your discussion on the issue of heritability. Great job.
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