Lamarck, Jean Baptiste

[person]

French zoologist and botanist, born in Bazentine le Petit (1744-1829). While working as a professor of invertebrate natural history at the Musée National d'Histoire Naturelle, Lamarck developed his theory of evolution, which stated that organisms could change in response to changes in their environment and could pass these changes on to their offspring, a theory later proven largely incorrect.