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Darwin Vs Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed the theory of acquired traits, suggesting organisms can pass on traits developed during their lifetime, while Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection argues that beneficial traits are inherited through genetic variation. Darwin's theory is supported by modern genetics, fossil records, and experimental biology, which demonstrate that evolution occurs through random mutations rather than the needs of organisms. Evidence such as bacterial resistance to antibiotics further confirms that traits are inherited and shaped by natural selection, not acquired through use.

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20 views1 page

Darwin Vs Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck proposed the theory of acquired traits, suggesting organisms can pass on traits developed during their lifetime, while Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection argues that beneficial traits are inherited through genetic variation. Darwin's theory is supported by modern genetics, fossil records, and experimental biology, which demonstrate that evolution occurs through random mutations rather than the needs of organisms. Evidence such as bacterial resistance to antibiotics further confirms that traits are inherited and shaped by natural selection, not acquired through use.

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Leangray Vingua
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Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744-1829) proposed the first theory that made a meaning

throughout the history of evolution and made a foundation regarding the changes of animals
that he have observed through his time. Theory of Acquired traits, develops the idea that
organisms can pass on physical traits towards their offspring. And that the theory pictures a
purposeful evolution where organism “will” adapt themselves to meet the conditions of that
environment. Lamarck also suggested that frequently used organs become stronger, while
unused ones weaken over generations. However, a British scientist disregarded this theory.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) composed a theory in 1859 called the theory of biological
evolution by natural selection in which is stated that organisms with traits that are beneficial
are more likely to survive.
Darwin proved Lamarck’s theory inaccurate on a few conditions, firstly is that
modern genetics supported Darwin’s view. Acquired traits doesn’t alter the DNA passed
towards the offspring. Instead, variation surfaces from mutation and recombination, which are
acted upon by natural selection, an example of this was August Weismann’s mice experiment
which showed that acquired traits do not affect offspring by cutting off the tails of mice for
multiple generations, and observing that the offspring continued to be born with normal tails,
effectively disproving the theory of inheritance of acquired traits. Furthermore, Organisms do
not evolve because they "need to" instead, those with beneficial mutations are naturally
selected, if organisms could evolve just because they "needed to," species would never go
extinct. On the contrary past recordings show that 99% of all species that lived are now extinct,
for instance the dodo birds could not “evolve” wings when humans hunted them down,
leading to its extinction around 1681 according to Britannica.com. Lastly, fossil records and
experimental biology support natural selection. For example, bacterial resistance to antibiotics
arises through selection of random genetic mutations, not through increased "use" of
resistance genes by individual bacteria, when exposed to medications, bacteria do not “learn”
to counter it, instead some bacteria have random mutations that make them resistant. These
bacteria survive and multiply, which ends up making a copy paste like resistance to newly
generated bacteria.
In general, genetics, experimental biology and fossil records support Darwin’s
theory of natural selection against Lamarck’s theory of acquired traits. Evolution occurs in
random mutations and selection, not because organisms “need” to adapt. Evidences from
bacterial resistance, artificial selection, and genetic coding confirms that traits are inherited,
not acquired through use. Natural selections favors organisms with beneficial genes, shaping
species over time.

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