Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste

1. Entity type Person
2. Birth date 1744
3. Death date 1829
4. Birth place Bazentin, Picardy, France
5. Death place Paris
6. Gender Name Male
7. Biographical Data

   1. Baptiste was a French naturalist, academic and biologist, and early proponent of the idea that biological evolution occured and proceed in accordance with natural laws. In 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres, a major work on the classification of invertebrates, a term he coined. In an 1802 publication he became one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense.

      The modern era generally remembers Lamarck for a theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics, called soft inheritance, Lamarckism, or use/disuse theory. However, his idea of soft inheritance was, perhaps, a reflection of the wisdom of the time accepted by many natural historians. Lamarck's contribution to evolutionary theory consisted of the first truly cohesive theory of biological evolution in which an alchemical complexifying force drove organisms up a ladder of complexity, and a second environmental force adapted them to local environments through use and disuse of characteristics, differentiating them from other organisms. Scientists have debated whether advances in the field of transgenerational epigenetics mean that Lamarck was to an extent correct, or not.

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