Page 182 - The Miracle of the Honeybee

180 THE MIRACLE OF THE HONEYBEE

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 genera-
tions. Lamarck's giraffe fairy tale was thus consigned to the wastebin of history.

the traits they acquired during their lifetime to the next generation. He as-
serted that these traits, which accumulated from one generation to an-
other, 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 trans-
formed themselves into whales over time. 161
However, the laws of inheritance discovered by Gregor Mendel (1822-
84) and verified by the science of genetics, 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
favor as an evolutionary mechanism.