Difference between Lamarckism and Darwinism
Lamarckism
Difference between Lamarckism and Darwinism: Lamarck was a famous French scientist. In 1809, he first gave a scientific explanation of development, which is called Lamarckism.
Uses/Examples of Lamarck
(1) Giraffe’s neck
Among Lamarck’s many examples to explain his argument, the main example is the giraffe:
According to Lamarck, the giraffe evolved from the ancestors of the short neck and short stature. Those who lived in the dense forests of Africa and ate grass growing in the ground. When the climate became dry, the grasshopper of the field started drying up. They had to depend on the leaves of trees and plants to feed their stomachs. To reach the leaves, they had to try to reach the leaves by raising their legs up.
Therefore, due to the maximum use of neck and front legs, their length gradually increased from generation to generation. Nowadays the long-neck and long legs giraffe in the desert of Africa is the result of these changes.
(2) Snakes
Similarly, Lamarck presented examples of disuse of limbs, according to which, according to him, the disappearance of legs in snakes is due to the influence of the environment.
Therefore, they gradually became smaller and eventually disappeared completely after thousands of generations.
Criticism of Lamarckism
- Similarly, the children of blind parents are not blind.
- The muscles of the wrestlers become well developed by continuous practice, but the son of the wrestler lacks the muscular muscles like the father.
- The practice of piercing the ears and noses of girls in India is very old, yet there are no holes in the nose and ears at the time of birth.
Darwinism
Darwin has given a detailed explanation of many facts in the book ‘The Evolution of Species by Natural Selection’ in 1859. In this book, he presented the process of biological evolution as an example and explained how organisms survive by adapting themselves to the environment. live and produce offspring. On the contrary, the living beings which are not able to adapt themselves to nature, perish after some time.
Examples/Experiments of Darwinism
(1) giraffe
According to Darwin, both short-necked and long-necked giraffes were alive. But the short-necked giraffes could not adapt under the conditions of nature and they gradually perished while the long-necked ones were able to adapt and survive.
(2) Lion, Cheetah, and Leopard
These creatures are very similar to each other in nature and composition. They are all carnivores. And they have sharp nails on their fingers. So they must have evolved from the same type of ancestor. But to take maximum advantage of the environment, these changes kept coming and gradually these changes became so much that different species were formed from all three.
The main features of Darwinism are the formation of new species on the basis of natural selection.
Difference Between Lamarckism and Darwinism
| Lamarckism | Darwinism |
| 1.The ancestors of the giraffe had short necks. But they had to lengthen their necks to eat the leaves of tall trees. | 1.The ancestors of giraffes had different neck lengths and these differences were heritable. |
| 2. The length of the neck in the progeny of these giraffes was longer than the neck of the ancestors. He also had to pull his neck. | 2. Long-necked giraffes were found to be more suitable in the conflict and natural selection resulted in an increase in the progeny of long-necked giraffes and the destruction of short-necked giraffes. |
| 3. Gradually, the length of the neck increased in their new progeny and the long neck of the modern giraffe developed. | 3.So only giraffes with long necks survived. |
| 4. Lamarck’s theory is based on the inheritance of acquired traits. | 4. Darwin’s theory is based on natural selection. |
