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passed on the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next gen-
eration. He asserted that these traits, which accumulated from one gen-
eration 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.
Darwin also gave similar examples. In his book The Origin of
Species, for instance, he said that some bears going into water to find
food transformed themselves into whales over time. 176
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel
(1822-84) and verified by the science of genetics, which flourished in the
twentieth century, utterly demolished the legend that acquired traits
were passed on to subsequent generations. Thus, natural selection fell
out of favor as an evolutionary mechanism.

Lamarck believed that giraffes
evolved from animals resembling
antelopes. In his view, these crea-
tures’ necks grew as they
stretched up to eat the leaves on
trees, and they gradually turned in-
to giraffes. The laws of inheritance
discovered by Mendel in 1865
proved that it was impossible for
characteristics acquired during the
course of life to be handed on to
later generations. Thus Lamarck’s
just-so story was consigned to the
wastebasket of history.

Islam And Far Eastern Religions