Jean Baptiste
Lamarck
August 1st 1744December 18th 1829
Early Life
• Born Benzentin-le-Petit
• Was sent to Jesuit school in Amines
• Received classical education until 15
• At age 15 father died and joined the military
Early life cont.
• While in military began to study plants
• At age 24 left military and studied
medicine in Paris for 4 years
• At medical school became interested in
Meteorology, chemistry, and shell
collecting
Plants of France
• In 1779 Lamarck published his first of many
books Flore François or Plants of France a 3
volume set
• Was elected into the Academy of Sciences where
he became an Associate Botanist in 1783
• Wrote The King’s Garden in 1788 and became
Chair of botany and keeper of the herbarium
Invertebrate Zoology
• His biggest contributions were in
the fields of invertebrate zoology
and evolution
• Published Natural History of
Animals without backbones from
1815-1822
Work with Evolution
• Accepted view that animals in nature were
arranged on one continuous natural scale
• Meaning that when life started all other life
forms were a result of time, and environment
interaction
• Ideas initially presented in 1809 in Zoological
Philosophy
Revolutionary Ideas
• In his books he was the first person
to use the word biology in the
modern sense
• In geology talked about
uniformitarianism which lead the way
for continental drift
• His theories of evolution were a large
protest against current thought
Lamarckism
• In his volumes he said environment was
controlled by three biological laws
• Organ development
• Law of use and disuse
• Inheritance of acquired characteristics
Lamarckism’s forces
• In Lamarckism there are two main forces
driving evolution
• The complexifiying Force
• And the Adaptive force
Lamarck’s Legacy
• While his theory is generally thought of as
False Lamarck made the first theory of
evolution
• Darwin took many of Lamarck’s ideas into
account when coming up with natural
selection
Lamarck’s Legacy cont.
• Major works
– Plants of France
– The Kings Garden
– Natural History of Animals without backbones
• Major Theories
– Lamarckism
– Use/Disuse
– Inheritance of acquired traits
References
• http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/history/lamarck.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Baptiste_Lamarck
• http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/information/biography/klmno
/lemarck_jean.html
• http://evolution.berkeley.edu/evolibrary/article/_0/history_09
• http://www.nndb.com/people/275/000057104/