Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
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Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck, often known simply as Lamarck, was a French naturalist, biologist, academic, and soldier. He was an early proponent of the idea that biolog
Portrait by Charles Thévenin, c. 1802
Lamarck, late in life
Statue of Lamarck by Léon Fagel in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris
Darwin's finches by Gould
Lamarckism
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Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use o
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck repeated the ancient folk wisdom of the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
The long neck of the giraffe is often used as an example in popular explanations of Lamarckism. However, this was only a small part of his theory of evolution towards "perfection"; it was a hypothetical illustration; and he used it to discuss his theory of heredity, not evolution.
Edward Drinker Cope
Charles-Édouard Brown-Séquard tried to demonstrate Lamarckism by mutilating guinea pigs.