Saturday, February 11, 2012

Darwin & Lamarck and the evolution


1 .- Jean-Baptiste lamark was a French naturalist who attempted to explain the evolucionary process, suggesting a dynamic relationship between species and environment. His model of evolution proposed that individuals were able to pass to their offspring characteristics acquired during their own lifetimes. Lamarck's proposal that species did not go extinct, but instead evolved into another form; In fact, Lamarck went further, stating that evolution produced more complex organisms from simple ancestors, and that this process of change took time.
 Lamarck thought that changes were acquired during the life of a parent organism and then transmitted to their offspring while Darwin deducted that changes were already present in the parent organisms, and that the best adapted to that situation survived to breed, which meant that those genetic changes become common in the following generations.
2.- Lamarckian evolutionism was what became known as the inheritance of acquired characters. This described the means by which the structure of an organism altered over generations. His theory help us to understand in certain way how everything develops in order to achieve in a better way new tasks.
3.-  Darwin Vs Lamarck
All organisms have the potential of reproducing exponentially
* Resources are limited.  Our planet has a limit of much it can hold and produce.  Here is where Lamarck and his example about the giraffes fits, looking for food giraffes expand their necks to reach.
*Organisms with better access to resources will be more successful in their reproductive efforts. 
* If the environment changes, the traits that are helpful or adaptive to that environment will be
Different,.
* In order for natural selection to occur, reproduction MUST occur!  Survival is not enough.  If you
don’t pass on your traits, evolution will not occur
* In order for traits to evolve and change, they MUST be heritable; we all know now that trait acquired by lifetime thatb are not in our genetic information cannot be pass from one generation to another./
4.- Probably yes, but the other theories help Charles Darwin  to develop a better way to study the  interactions between animals, and his view about them and also their relation with the world.

5.- Darwin took over twenty years to research, prepare, write, and eventually publish his great work. Its well known the great opposition and hostility that its publication inspired from the religious authorities and from a great part of the intellectual community of the mid-nineteenth century England.
The Origin of the Species which indicates that Darwin suppressed publication of his work because he was reluctant to face the “religious indignation that .. greeted its eventual publication. He did not suppress or delay publication because of religious or political factors; he simply did not feel that his work was ready to do what he hoped to do: make as strong a case as possible for natural evolution of species in the face of centuries of belief in God’s creation of animal and plant species in static, unchanging forms.

1 comment:

  1. Overall, very good, with a couple of points:

    Good background on Lamarck's work.

    I agree with your last three bullet points, but the first two regarding resource availability was more a contribution of Malthus than Lamarck.

    In your last paragraph, you first say Darwin was reluctant to face the "religious indignation", and then you go on to say that he did NOT delay publication due to religious factors. Isn't that a contradiction? I agree with your last sentence that he wanted to make sure that his work made the strongest argument possible for his theory, but there were other factors as well, such as his concern for the repercussions of publishing his work, especially on his children and his wife who was deeply religious.

    Other than these points, good job.

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