Page 498 - Bigotry: The Dark Danger

Bigotry:
The Dark Danger

Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual dif-
ferences or variations occur. (Charles Darwin, The Origin of
Species by Means of Natural Selection, The Modern Library,
New York, p. 127)

Lamarck's Fallacy

So, how could these "favorable variations" occur? Darwin tried
to answer this question from the standpoint of the primitive under-
standing of science at that time. According to the French biologist
Chevalier de Lamarck (1744-1829), who lived before Darwin, living
creatures passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to
the next generation. He asserted that these traits, which accumulated

from one generation to another, caused new species to be formed.
For instance, he claimed that giraffes evolved from antelopes; as they
struggled to eat the leaves of high trees, their necks were extended
from generation to generation.

ALSE

F

Lamarck claimed that giraffes evolved from a species similar to antelopes and
that their necks grew longer while they were trying to eat the leaves of high
trees. However, this claim of Lamarck's is refuted by scientific findings and
took its place in history as a false assumption.

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