2024-02-10 23:39:46
Introduction
The dodo, illustrated here, is an often cited example of extinction (in the 17th century).
Transformism is a biological theory, rival of fixism, whose history dates back to the time when Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck (August 1, 1744,…) (1744- 1829) stated his famous theory (The word theory comes from the Greek word theorein, which means “to contemplate, observe,…) on the evolution of species, which aimed to explain the extinction of species (In biology and ecology, the Extinction is the total disappearance of a species or group of…). Today it designates indifferently any theory implying a variation (or transformation) of species over the course of geological history.
The problem of species extinction
In addition to the scientific problem (A scientist is a person who devotes himself to the study of a science or sciences and who…) of the great age of the Earth (The Earth is the third planet in the Solar System in order distance…), causing several inevitable conflicts with the literal interpretation of the Bible, another major unresolved issue at this time was the question of fossils and the extinction of life forms (Life is the name given 🙂 . Indeed, with the intensification of studies, it became evident that many fossil species were different from living species today. But the problem became inevitable when fossilized mammals, such as mastodons, were discovered in the 18th century in America. North (North is a cardinal point, opposite the south.), and mammoths, in Siberia.
For many theistic natural theologians, extinctions were inconceivable, because the concept of plenitude did not accord with them; God, having created all possible living species, would not allow any of them to disappear. For other naturalists, mainly deists, the problem of extinctions was no clearer, since God could not intervene on Earth and modify or create anything. They then had to either postulate a law established from the creation of the World (The word world can designate:) explaining the constant extinction of ancient species and the appearance of new species over time (Time is a concept developed by human being to understand the…) geological, or everything (The whole understood as a set of what exists is often interpreted as the world or…) simply deny these. Several hypotheses were then tried during the 18th and 19th centuries (A century is now a period of one hundred years. The word comes from the Latin saeculum, i, which…).
The popular explanation identified the Flood, or any other catastrophe, as the cause of the extinctions. Despite the fact that this hypothesis was weakened by the observation of the extinction of several aquatic species, the catastrophism was supported by several naturalists such as Georges Cuvier (Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric Cuvier, known as Georges Cuvier (he also had the nicknames… ) (1769-1832) or Louis Agassiz (Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (May 28, 1807 – December 14, 1873) is a…) (1807-1873)
According to another explanation, the supposedly extinct species could have survived in a still unexplored region of the globe. Finally, some explained the extinctions by arguing that they had been the work of man, especially in the case of the mammoth (Mammoths are extinct mammals of the Elephantidae family.) and the mastodon (Mastodon is an ambiguous term in French. Mastodons are proboscidians living in…).
Lamarckian laws
Lamarck considered that we needed a theory to explain two well-known phenomena in biology (The needs are at the level of the interaction between the individual and the environment. It is… biology, commonly called “organic”, is the science of life….). The first was that animals show a graduated series of improvement, going from the simplest animals to those with the most complex organization. The other phenomenon he tried to explain was the astonishing diversity of organisms. In his Zoological Philosophy, which he published in 1809, Lamarck discerns very well what separates his conception from that of fixism and creationism. He thus formulates two laws which, in reality, are only two intuitive hypotheses supposed to account for the fundamental mechanism of the evolutionary process.
The first law was the capacity of living beings, following the more frequent and sustained use of any organ, to develop little by little this organ depending on the use reserved for it, and on the contrary, to progressively deteriorate the faculties of an organ if the latter is not used. So by simplifying, the function creates the organ. This law of use and non-use of an organ was an observation commonly accepted at the time of Lamarck, and he only radicalized her.
In his second law, Lamarck postulates his famous thesis of the heredity of acquired knowledge which consists of the possibility of transmitting to our descendants the organic or morphological changes acquired during our life in relation to the first law. Lamarck used, to support his theory of evolution, examples that are now famous, such as the elongation of the neck (The neck is the region of the body which is located between the head and the rest of the body…) the giraffe (The giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) is a species of artiodactyl ungulate mammal…), due to sustained use, or the atrophy of the eyes of moles under the influence of the environment.
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