Who proposed the theory of evolution by acquired characteristics?
options: a) Charles Darwin b) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck c) Charles Lyell and Thomas Malthus d) Stanley Miller and Charles Darwin
The correct answer and explanation is:
The correct answer is b) Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, a French naturalist, proposed the theory of evolution by acquired characteristics in the early 19th century. His theory is often referred to as Lamarckism. According to Lamarck, organisms evolve through the inheritance of traits that are acquired during their lifetime due to environmental changes or use/disuse of certain features. For example, Lamarck suggested that giraffes evolved long necks because their ancestors stretched their necks to reach higher branches, and this acquired characteristic was passed on to future generations.
Lamarck’s ideas were among the first attempts to explain how species change over time. However, his theory was eventually challenged and largely replaced by Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection, which offered a more scientifically grounded explanation for the diversity of life.
Lamarck’s theory emphasized the role of the environment and individual effort in shaping evolution, while Darwin focused on the survival and reproduction of individuals with advantageous traits, which would gradually become more common in the population over generations. Darwin’s theory of natural selection is based on the idea that heritable traits that increase an organism’s chances of survival and reproduction are more likely to be passed on to the next generation.
Despite the fact that Lamarck’s theory has been largely discredited, it was an important step in the history of evolutionary biology. It represented an early attempt to explain how species evolve and set the stage for the more comprehensive theories that followed, including Darwin’s theory of natural selection. Today, some aspects of Lamarckian ideas, such as the influence of environmental factors on gene expression, are explored in the field of epigenetics, but the concept of acquired traits being passed on in the way Lamarck proposed is not supported by modern science.