1. I believe that French naturalist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck had a huge impact on Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection.
2. Even though his theories have been rejected Lamarck was the first to suggest that if a species environment changes the species will adapt to accommodate their needs or if a body part is not needed it stops being used and disappears. These adaptations will be passed on to the offspring of the animals. Lamarck was an early promoter of the theory of evolution which was later modified and expanded by Charles Darwin. His idea of how animals changed to adapt to their environment was not correct but his ideas about how animals adapted gave Charles Darwin as well as other scientist a starting point to continue to work on this theory.
1. http://www.alternativeinsight.com/Lamarck.html
3. Lamarck’s work affects a few of the points in the “How does evolution work?” section. The first is “if the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different because the main focus of his theory was that animals will change to adapt to their surroundings even though his theory was not correct it helped to move the theory of evolution along. Another point I believe he affected is “in order for natural selection to occur, reproduction MUST occur!”Lamarck s thought was that when a species changed a part of their anatomy it would automatically pass on but again he wasn’t right about how it worked he gave other scientist a starting point.
4. Darwin could have developed his theory without the influence of Lamarck but I think that it would have taken him a lot longer because without the starting point that Lamarck gave him he would have had to start from scratch rather than building off of an idea that was already within the science community.
5. The attitude of the church made Darwin very apprehensive about publishing his work since his father was a very well regarded man and well as his wives strong religious beliefs. The people of that time thought that god created all things and did not want people to challenge that.
Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI can see how you could argue Lamarck was the greatest influence over Darwin's theory because his theory lead to a major part of natural selection.I agree that although he was ultimately wrong he gave other scholars the stepping block they needed to develop correct theories. I also agree that Darwin probably would have reached the same conclusion but it would have taken longer.
You made very good reasons and evidence as to how Lamarck gave other scientists a starting point to the adaption process. I agree that it would have mostly likely taken Darwin longer to develop his theory without the early works of Lamarck to learn from.
ReplyDeleteIn general, very good, with just on correction:
ReplyDeleteWhen you say (in paragraph 3), "Lamarck s thought was that when a species changed a part of their anatomy", you are actually describing Darwin's work. The key is the word "species". Lamark felt that individual organisms change during their lifetime while Darwin recognized that only populations (species) can change over time. Big difference.
Otherwise good discussion.
A caution about your source. If you read through it, it sends up a lot of red flags. The author(s) use the word "proven" a lot (along with "evolutionist"... yikes), which is usually sign that they don't have a clue about the scientific method. Make sure you review the information on Lamark in the text and if there are any discrepancies, I would value the textbook's version before this one.
Thank you for pointing out that mistake in the third paragraph. I did not catch that. As for the source I found that a lot of what I was reading was similar to the textbook but when I got your email I went back and reread the information and was concerned about it. I will make sure to be more careful on future assignments.
ReplyDeleteThank you for responding back, Sarah. Good job.
ReplyDelete