Botanist 1744-1829

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck was born on August 1, 1744, in Bazentin-le-Petit, France. He died on December 18, 1829. He is best known for his theory on evolution, which stated that acquired traits can be inherited. Charles Darwin later challenged this theory. Lamarck also was the first scientist to define animals as either vertebrates (having backbones) or invertebrates (those without).

Lamarck came from a long line of military horsemen. At the age of nineteen he left a school run by Jesuits (a religious order) to join the army. While serving he became interested in the plants along the Mediterranean Sea. Resigning from the army after an injury, Lamarck began to study medicine, but then switched his interest to botany. He studied under the French botanist Bernard de Jussieu at the royal botanical gardens in Paris. After years of studying and collecting, he published a three-volume work on the plants of...