Who proposed that the long neck of giraffes evolved due to their attempt to forage leaves on tall trees?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 1
The correct answer is Option (1) → Lamarck
Even before Darwin, the French naturalist Lamarck said that evolution had taken place, but that it was driven by the use and disuse of organs. His example was the giraffe: giraffes that stretched to forage leaves on tall trees got longer necks and passed this acquired character to their young. Nobody believes this idea any more.
Option (1) Lamarck — Correct. Lamarck gave the giraffe example to explain evolution by use and disuse of organs and the inheritance of acquired characters.
Option (2) Darwin — Incorrect. Darwin explained evolution by natural selection of heritable variations, not by a body part growing longer through use.
Option (3) Malthus — Incorrect. Thomas Malthus worked on populations. His work may have influenced Darwin, but he gave no theory about giraffes.
Option (4) Aristotle — Incorrect. Aristotle is not linked in NCERT with any idea about the neck of the giraffe.
NCERT Extract:
Biological Evolution – “… Even before Darwin, a French naturalist Lamarck had said that evolution of life forms had occurred but driven by use and disuse of organs. He gave the examples of Giraffes who in an attempt to forage leaves on tall trees had to adapt by elongation of their necks. As they passed on this acquired character of elongated neck to succeeding generations, Giraffes, slowly, over the years, came to acquire long necks. Nobody believes this conjecture any more.”