Jean Baptiste Lamarck
- Born: August 1st, 1744
- french naturalist
- soldier
- biologist
- academic
- best known figure of the pre-Darwinian era of evolutionism
- fought in pomeranian war with prussia
- retired from army in 1766 to return to his medical studies
- proposed inheritance of acquired characteristics (AKA "theory of use-disuse")
- Use-Disuse Theory: if an organism uses a structure a lot and so do its ancestors, that structure develops better over time
- first person to propose a mechanism for evolution
- new discovery of "jumping genes" is what provided evidence to support his theory
- had two main themes in his biological work: Environment gives rise to changes in animals and life was structured in an orderly manner
- constructed one of the first frameworks of organic evolution
- turned blind before he died
- Died: December 18th, 1829 at the age of 85