Prior to the scientific revolution, humanity viewed the natural world in a distinct way. Traditional ways of thinking such as catastrophism, which was the conception that natural disasters, like hurricanes, were to blame for the extinction of species, which were then replaced by new species (Lavenda et al. 49). Rapidly these customary notions were challenged by evolutionary scientists and Charles Darwin who both believed and considered ideas about how life on earth got to it is. They had some similar and some profoundly diverse ideas. This paper will compare and contrast Lamarck’s theory of acquired characteristics with Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection.
Before the analyzation of the theories of the scientists, we must review the scientific method. With the
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Lamarck and Darwin both had a theory of evolution, in order to lead them to their theories they developed a hypothesis through observations and experiments and collected data, which led them to their life-changing discoveries about evolution.
The French scientist, Jean-Baptiste de Monet de Lamarck (1744-1829) struggled with the idea of how perfectly well adapted species could disappear. He wanted to provide an adequate explanation other than the fictional tales like the Bible stories and man hunting down all the species away (Lavenda et al. 53). He didn’t believe in the fixity of species, which is that once species are created they are fixed and unchanging (Wolfson). He witnessed the emergence of fossils that held a close resemblance to those to living species and concluded in 1809 that the fossils found were the ancestors of the living species. Lamarck deemed that “organism adapted to their environments by acquiring traits (Wolfson). Lamarck believed that all organisms have the ability to change over their lifetime and that every species is preoccupied in its own transformation over time (Lavenda et al. 53). He proposed two “laws” to