Advertisement

Advertisement

Lamarck

[ luh-mahrk; French la-mark ]

noun

  1. Jean Bap·tiste Pierre An·toine de Mo·net de [zhah, n, b, a, -, teest, pye, r, ah, n, -, twan, d, uh, maw-, ne, d, uh], 1744–1829, French naturalist: pioneer in the field of comparative anatomy.


Lamarck

/ lamark /

noun

  1. LamarckJean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet17441829MFrenchSCIENCE: naturalist Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet (ʒɑ̃ batist pjɛr ɑ̃twan də mɔnɛ), Chevalier de Lamarck. 1744–1829, French naturalist. He outlined his theory of organic evolution (Lamarckism) in Philosophie Zoologique (1809)
“Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged” 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Lamarck

/ lə-märk,lä- /

  1. French naturalist who introduced the taxonomic distinction between vertebrates and invertebrates. His theory that the acquired characteristics of a species could be inherited by later generations was a forerunner to Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, although it was eventually discredited.
Discover More

Example Sentences

In their classic theories of evolution, both Jean Baptiste Lamarck and Charles Darwin suggested that giraffes' long necks evolved to help them reach leaves high up in a tree, avoiding competition with other herbivores.

To biologists, the giraffe’s long neck is a prime example of evolution’s handiwork, cited by both Charles Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck as support for their evolutionary theories.

In Darwin’s time, the most commonly accepted mechanism of heredity was a theory advanced by the eighteenth-century French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Others were the product of imperfect observation, such as Lamarck’s theory that acquired characteristics could be inherited or the theory of spontaneous generation.

The work was initially controversial, as geneticists saw it as a revival of the non-Darwinian ideas of 19th century scientist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement


LamarLamarckian