Page 118 - The Miracle of Termites

Harun Yahya

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

generation to another, caused new spe-
cies to be formed. For instance, he
claimed that giraffes evolved from ante-
lopes; as they struggled to eat the leaves
of high trees, their necks were extended
from generation to generation.
Darwin also gave similar exam-
ples. In his book The Origin of Species, for
instance, he said that some bears go-

ing into water to find food trans-
formed themselves into whales over
time. 59
However, the laws of inheritance
discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822-
84) and verified by the science of ge-
netics, which flourished in the twenti-

eth century, utterly demolished the
legend that acquired traits were
passed on to subsequent generations.
Thus, natural selection fell out of fa-
vor as an evolutionary mechanism. French naturalist Lamarck

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