ea that by using a particular trait your offspring would be better in that particular trait, conversely if you do not exercise a particular trait to its full advantage, your offspring will have a less useful version of that particular trait. For example a elephant which goes for high leaves may have offspring with a longer neck, and the elephant which reaches for ground level leaves may have offspring with a shorter neck (Stanford,Allen, and Anton 18). While Lamarck heavily promoted this theory has was not the originator (Zirkle 417). In contrast Darwin's Idea of
Evolution, which was published in 1859, stated that some event would cause a trait to appear in a population. If that trait changed the rate of reproduction of the members within the
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The environment in which a population lives in selects which traits are desirable or not and that reflects on the members reproduction fitness. For example, an elephant may be born with a longer neck. This allows the elephant to reach higher branches and to consume more food, thus the long necked elephants will reproduce more than the short necked elephants. Eventually the elephants with long necks will out number thepreviously dominant short necked elephants (Stanford,Allen, and Anton 18).
Both Acquired Traits and Evolution tried to solve the same problem of where did all the species come from. They both came to a fairly similar conclusion, that environmental factors shape the physical traits that are expressed causing changes in a population. The main difference between the two competing theories was the mechanism for how the change was accomplished.
The main mechanism for how traits are spread in Lamarck's theory of Inheritance of Acquired
Traits is, environment pressure causes a species to adapt to the changing environment by either using or not using a particular trait. If an individual needed to use a trait the individual would adapt by making that trait better suited for accomplishing its task, as in the elephant