Lamarck and Darwin definitely had
different views on evolution. Lamarck thought that different species inherited
the characteristics that they have at the current time. Like for example
giraffes could have started as an animal that had short necks. But when the
ancestors stretched their necks in order to adapt to where they could get the
food, the next generation of giraffes after them would have longer necks. This
was completely different from Darwin’s theories. Darwin believed that there
were different types of species inside the family of the species. To better
explain this, he thought that maybe there were giraffes that had short necks,
and other giraffes had long necks. It would turn into the theory of survival of
the fittest. The giraffes with the longer necks would have an easier time
getting to their food. But, the ones with the shorter necks would not be so
lucky. So instead of having giraffes with shorter necks to this day, we have
longer ones because the ancestors before them that had longer necks survived
while the other ones didn’t so there was no offspring following the giraffes
with shorter necks.
The one question that I have to
answer in this short essay is, how did a woodpecker get such a cushioned head?
Today, if you find a woodpecker you’ll find them banging their head against a
tree yet they have no reaction towards it. If you did that you would become
very dazed and dizzy…. Your head will also hurt and you might get a headache
afterwards most likely. But the woodpeckers are completely fine with it and
they do it all the time. So, it’s of course because we don’t have as much
cushion in our heads like they do. How did they get that feature? Lamarck and
Darwin would be the ones who would have different theories compared to each
other.
I’m pretty sure what Darwin would
say to this. Maybe, quite possibly, there were a bunch of different woodpeckers
that were different from each other. I mean, all of the humans today aren’t
completely alike right? So there must have been some slight difference between
other species as well. So, what if some woodpeckers had less cushion then other
woodpeckers? This animal has the common instinct to bang their heads against
trees right? Well maybe the other woodpeckers that didn’t have much cushion,
didn’t survive as well as the ones who did. Therefore, like the giraffe
example, the offspring from the more cushioned woodpeckers would be the only
offspring that would come afterwards since the other woodpeckers with the less
cushion, had a harder time surviving.
Lamarck wouldn’t believe in such a
thing. I think that Lamarck thought that since the woodpeckers have to do this
activity of banging their heads against trees, maybe they inherited it. So, if
the woodpeckers in the past kept banging their heads against the trees even
though they didn’t have enough cushion, the species adapted to the survival
instincts where they would slowly inherit more cushion. So therefore, their
offspring for the years to come afterwards, will inherit the feature of having
more cushion. So he basically thought that the species adapted to their
surroundings rather than the survival of the fittest type of theory.
Both theories have a different
thinking style. I can see how these men thought it was so fascinating to find
out how these species got the features that they are born with. It brings you
to the even larger question of how did any of our species, including us, get to
the point to where we are now?
What do you think about this topic?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below this blog post!
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