Lamarck believed that there was a form of evolution, but contrary to Darwin after him, he believed that the characteristics an organism acquires during his life are inherited by its descendants.
For more on Lamarck's hypothesis, see the related question below.
That evolution occurs through the use and disuse of physical features by individual members of a species.
The concept of acquired characteristics and the concept of use and disuse.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
There is only one central "theory of evolution", which is the theory of evolution by natural selection that Charles Darwin pioneered. There have been different theories in the past - such as Jean-baptise Lamarck's theory of acquired traits - but these lost their status of scientific theory when they were shown to be wrong.
Evolution - a unifying principle of biologyThe theory of evolution states that modern organisms are descendants of ancient organisms and that modifications accumulated over time explain the apparent changes and differences among modern forms of life. This 'descent with modification' theory was central to Charles Darwin's argument of biological evolution, an idea spearheaded by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829). The idea of evolution proposes that animals and plants can change over time, and are not static forms created at once and independent of each other. Lamarck and Darwin proposed different explanation of how these changes may occur. Darwin's proposal of natural selection has proved correct and evidence from biology, earth science, and cosmology all corroborate the basic mechanism of natural selection.
Lamarck thought acquired traits were past on, but he was prover wrong by Darwin and his natural selection idea.
Lamarck thought that evolution could be effected by changes in the body, rather that strictly by the survival (or rather the death) of offsprings.
Lamarck's hypotheses were published in Zoological Philosophical Work written in 1809.
early 1800s
Lamarck's ideas were that he had a great contribution to the study of evolution.
Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was the first person to clearly formulate and present a plausible theory of evolution. Lamarck was a French naturalist who lived from 1744 to 1829.
Scientists do not prove things. Lamarck's theory is long refuted as acquired characteristics and the use and disuse concepts are not explanations for evolution of populations.
Lamarck
Fossils or natural selection
Around 1793.
kos
Lamarck was correct about the connection between the environment and evolution. He saw that the organism changes based on the environment and its survival. However, Lamarck is not well-known for his advances in the field. Instead, he is known for the incorrect mechanisms for evolution that he proposed, including "use and disuse" and "inheritance of acquired characteristics." (A small note, Lamarck definitely did not have a "theory," he had hypotheses).
Lamarck proposed a scientific explanation for evolution because organisms evovled through the inherititance of acquired charactaristics.