Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste de Monet, chevalier de

(1744-1829)

   naturalist

   Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who formulated one of the earliest theories of evolution, was born in Bazentin, picardy. In 1768, he began his studies in botany, publishing his first work on that subject, La flore française, in 1778. As a result of this book and his friendship with the naturalist georges buffon, Lamarck was elected to the Academy of Sciences (1779). He became an associate botanist in 1783, but his most significant work was done when he began a career at the Jardin du Roi in Paris in 1788. When the garden was reorganized in 1793, Lamarck's ideas helped to frame the structure of the new Museum of Natural History, where, in that same year, he was appointed professor of the Chair of Invertebrate Zoology. Although Lamarck's contributions to science include work in botany, geology, paleontology, chemistry, and meteorology, he is best known for his studies in invertebrate zoology and his theoretical work on evolution. He published an important seven-volume work on that subject, Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertèbres (1815-22). Lamarck's theoretical observations on evolution, known in the early 19th century as transformism or transmutation, preceded his extensive observational work on invertebrates. With his colleagues Georges cuvier and étienne Geoffroy saint-hillaire, he accepted the idea of the arrangement of life on a "scala naturae," that is, from simple forms come more complex ones. These ideas were presented in Lamarck's major theoretical work, Philosophie zoologique (1809). His views, however, were not seriously considered during his lifetime, and his theory, known also as "Lamarckism," was overshadowed by Cuvier's scientific and political influence. Not until the latter part of the 19th century were Lamarck's ideas again seriously considered. in turn, these would then strongly influence Darwin. Lamarck's other important writings include Système des animaux sans vertèbres (1801) and Recherche sur l'organisation des espèces (1802). He was named to the Academy of Sciences in 1779.