Hi, I need help with essay on The Evolution Theory: Lamarck vs. Darwin. Paper must be at least 500 words. Please, no plagiarized work!
These adaptations were mainly related to the way the organisms used their various parts of the body. He put forth the theory that those body parts of the organisms that were used less frequently or that were never used at all to help them survive in their environment would not be needed in future. This, according to him, is the Law of Use and Disuse. This theory of evolution was supported through the inheritance of acquired characteristics. This aspect was, however, challenged in the coming years with the discovery of the fact that genes are passed on from one generation to the next, which meant that his initial theory was rendered baseless, as the characteristics of an organism is provided by its genes which are not subject to change within the life of the organism. Although the body cells might change but that does not warrant the fact that the sex cells would change too. In order to prove this theory, an experiment was conducted whereby the tails of some mice were cut off but their offsprings had a tail when they were born. Similarly in the case of giraffes, who lived in dry regions where the leaves are high and they had to stretch their necks to eat those leaves. The stretching of necks over a period of time, led their necks to stretch and grow and the same was then passed on to their offsprings, meaning thereby, that all the future generations of giraffes shall have long necks.
Charles Darwin, on the other hand, was of the opinion that there are innumerable kinds of species and this very fact, of the differences among the species allowed some of them to be more adaptable / successful than the others in a given environment. He labeled this phenomenon as natural selection.