So Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is credited with the giraffe example of 'evolutionary adaptations', where if the giraffe couldn't reach food in a high up tree that it could lengthen its neck by reaching for the food.
His theory, at heart, was basically, "The organism interacts with the environment".
so let me go to some more background and what is widely recognized before I get to my point.
Darwin is credited with Natural Selection where the strong survive blablabal... species undergo differential success in reproduction. or the unequal ability for species to reproduce.
So for the giraffe, its offspring that were born with a beneficial phenotype to that environment(high trees=giraffe has long neck) then that will be the most successful.
OK, now that we have that out of the way lets get to the good shit and smack all those know-it-all anthropologists in the head! 
So there's a field out n about today called epigenetics and it's basically about EVERYONE starts out with a blank slate genotype which the environment turns on/off various gene pathways and you get the observed phenotype as a result! I hope that makes sense because if it didn't then I HAVE AN EXAMPLE!!! WHOA LEARNING IS FUN
So recently there have been studies done on pregnant primates and rodents. The pregnant animals were put under a stressful environment and, as a result, released weak androgens from their adrenals. Basically whatever the mother has in her body will run through the developing embryo. The offspring, as a result of maternal stress, were more aggressive which would make them more suited to the stressful environment that the mother was expose to.
then this epigenetics can be further exemplified with... -environmental estrogens being credited for precocious puberty in females. -DDT(a pesticide that is a synthetic estrogen) ..just think... ok it's great and kills mosquitoes, which are very small, but ALL life is at that size in development in the womb/egg/as an embryo/whatever in its earliest development! -DES (look it up, horrible and another example) -Perchlorate on the thyroid... the perchlorate atom is similar in size to iodine and given a high enough concentration can block iodine uptake by the thyroid gland. -Hormones given to animals!!!while they don't necessarily affect an adult, their susceptibility to prepubescents is much greater
ANYHOW
So, Lamarck may have not been on the ball with the giraffe, but damn was his theory right on the ball.
And if you think about phenotypic plasticity, ohhhh fuck yes was he right. And he recieved nothing but disrespect from everyone.
To say Natural Selection is the end all be all is ignorant. I totally agree with Darwin but I think the integration of Lamarck's idea would be an a much fuller idea of what really going on.
anyhow, hoped you enjoyed my lil ramble, so next time you're in an anthropology class and that professor yaps about Lamarck being a quack, you'll know what to say.
-------------------- The best way to live is to be like water For water benefits all things and goes against none of them It provides for all people and even cleanses those places a man is loath to go In this way it is just like Tao ~Daodejing
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