Page 251 - The Miracle of Migration in Animals

HARUN YAHYA

Therefore, the mechanism of natural selection has no evolution-
ary power. Darwin was also aware of this fact and had to state this in
his book The Origin of Species:

Natural selection can do nothing until favourable individual differ-
ences or variations occur. 81

Lamarck’s Impact

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.

Lamarck believed that giraffes evolved from
such animals as antelopes. In his view, the
necks of these grass-eating animals gradually
grew longer, and they eventually turned into
giraffes. The laws of inheritance discovered by
Mendel in 1865 proved that it was impossible
for properties acquired during life to be
handed on to subsequent generations.
Lamarck’s giraffe fairy tale was thus con-
signed to the wastebin of history.

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