By the basic definition evolution is "the
process by which new species or populations of living things develop from
preexisting forms through successive generations."
And by scientific terms it goes, "species can change over time, that new species come from pre-existing species, and that all species share a common ancestor."
Now
we read above lines again and find that both of them are basically the same
thing while proving to be wrong at the same time. While many naturalists / geologists
proposed their theory on the evolution of life only two of them gained massive attention,
that is one being Jean Baptiste Lamarck, one of the best-known early
evolutionists, and the other being infamous English naturalist that the world
known as ‘Darwin”.
Lamark
first ever published his views in the year1801, later in “Philosophic
Zoologique" in the year 1805 and subsequently in year 1809 in his book
'Histoire Naturelle Des Animaux Sans Vertèbres’. His works entails that living things evolved in a continuously upward
direction, from dead matter, through simple to more complex forms, toward human
"perfection." Species didn't die out in extinctions, Lamarck claimed.
Instead, they changed into other species.
According to Lamarck, organisms altered their behavior in response to environmental change. Their changed behavior, in turn, modified their organs, and their offspring inherited those "improved" structures. For example, giraffes developed their elongated necks and front legs by generations of browsing on high tree leaves. The exercise of stretching up to the leaves altered the neck and legs, and their offspring inherited these acquired characteristics.
In Lamarck's view, a structure or organ would shrink
or disappear if used less or not at all. Driven by these heritable
modifications, all organisms would become adapted to their environments as
those environments changed.
On the other hand, Darwin published his theory of
evolution with compelling evidence in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species.
Charles
Robert Darwin was an English naturalist, geologist and biologist, best known
for his contributions to the science of evolution. His proposition that all
species of life have descended over time from common ancestors is now widely accepted and considered a foundational concept in science. In a joint
publication with Alfred Russel Wallace, he introduced his scientific theory
that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called
natural selection.
According to Darwin's theory, giraffes that happened to have slightly longer necks and limbs would have a better chance of securing food and thus be able to have more offspring -- the "select" who survived or the naturally selected one.
In his book, ‘Origin of Species’, he lastly recapitulated
and concluded “The other and more general departments of natural history
will rise greatly
in interest. The terms used by naturalists, of affinity, relationship,
community of type, paternity, morphology, adaptive characters,
rudimentary and aborted organs, &c., will cease to be
metaphorical, and will have a plain signification. When we no longer
look at an organic being as a savage looks at a ship, as something
wholly beyond his comprehension ; when we regard every production
of nature as one
which has had a long history; when we contemplate
every complex structure and instinct as the summing up of many
contrivances, each useful to the possessor, in the same way
as any great mechanical invention is the summing up
of the labor, the
experience, the reason, and even the blunders of numerous workmen
; when we thus view each organic being, how far more interesting—I
speak from experience—does
the study of natural history become !”
By the 1870s, the scientific community and a majority of the educated public had accepted evolution as a fact.
Now in the 21st century, nearly 165 years
after of Darwin proposed theory, where do we stand on the evolution of life. Did
we evolved or just barely survived? Today in the hectic needy life of ours are
we truly evolving to the better version of mankind or simply surviving the new dystopian
era.
The numerous air conditioners cooling our office, 15 tier buildings, residential flats, over the top shopping malls or multiplex open 24/7 in mere minutes, hailing cabs have never been this easy neither traveling to other countries in a quick plan ride (the plethora). Some aviation research websites quote approximately 1,02,465 is the average of daily flights (including small planes, private jets, helicopters etc.). Life was never this easy!!
Let’s do some math’s of how much fuel and energy we are consuming on a day-to-day life and not be forgetful of the over-consumption of everything in the name of aesthetic which we are exploiting on a much larger scale altogether too.
While the beauty of technology is not hidden and is a boon to us in fact, the horrors are also strongly attached too which are causing our mother planet on the road to an unrepairable destruction namely climate change, frequent floods and storms, forest fire, ocean depletion, landslides, massive land fields filled with non-disposable waste of used clothes and other hazardous garbage and so much more, the list is infinite.
Where Darwin's scientific discovery was the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining
the diversity of life, the name
"Lamarck" is now associated with a discredited view of
evolution the inheritance of
acquired characters.
Ask ourselves: