Influential Individual of Darwin's

Jean-Baptiste Lamark

(1744-1829)

Contributions to the Science Community

Jean- Baptiste Lamark was one of the first biologist who experimented with plants and saw a difference in traits. He also published a book titled Natural History of Invertebrates (1815-22) which was about his work on invertebrates. He differentiated eight-legged arachnids from six-legged insects, and echinoderms such as starfish and sea urchins from crabs, shrimp, and other crustaceans. His book till this day is considered his most important contribution.Lamarck is best known for The Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics even though it was disproved.
http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/history_09

Points Influenced By

• Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts.  

            This point influenced Lamark because he believed with his giraffe experiment that the giraffe with longer       necks were the only ones who would be able to survive.

• If the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be different.  

            This point influenced Lamark because he believed with the environment the species are in they will eventually adapt to there surroundings and there for have traits that will help for survival. 

• In order for traits to evolve and change, they MUST be heritable. 

          This point influenced Lamark because he believed that the traits weren't automatically going to be visible when the species were in a different habitat but that gradually they will change in shape or form where they will be able to have resources, shelter, and water to reproduce.

Influencing Darwin

I think Lamark does influence Darwin with his ideas. Without Lamark's ideas and observations Darwin couldn't have added on to it with his observation about the birds he observed on Galapagos Islands. Darwin is very much influenced by Lamark and his observation yes not everything Lamark theorized was not scientifically correct but some of his ideas were correct in some way and were later on corrected. In someway I do believe Darwin could have still theorized Natural Selection because his observations with the finches were scientifically correct and his theories were also true. But then again without Lamark's key ideas Darwin wouldn't have had hypothesized this theory.

Church VS. Darwin

The churches attitude towards Darwin affected him because everything scientific wasn't biblical and anything that was biblical was against the church. For example Galileo's theory or  I should say fact that all planets revolve around the Sun and that the Sun does not revolve around the Earth. That theory was not biblical which the church was very much against. But in Darwin's case he was very much afraid of publishing his book Origin of Species because then the church may refuses to accept the theory and may disprove of it.