L’évolution des espèces – Niveau collège

		L’évolution des espèces – Niveau collège – Fiche élève 4

Go to: www.bbc.co.uk/
Read the paragraph entitled “Lamarck” and answer the questions.

1. What did both Darwin and Lamarck study?

2. Use a Web search engine to find Lamarck dates of birth and death.

3. What were Lamarck’s two laws?

4. To explain his two laws, complete these sentences.
Lamarck thought that:
– if a species uses a characteristic, the characteristic becomes ______________;
– if a species doesn’t use a characteristic, the characteristic______________;
– if a characteristic is improved, the ____________ will have it too.

Vocabulary
offspring: un descendant
a feature: une caractéristique
improve: améliorer

5. Look at the two parallel charts which compare Lamarck and Darwin’s theories.
The sentences below correspond to what Darwin or Lamarck thought. Tick the right column.

	Lamarck’s theory	Darwin’s theory
a. In a generation all giraffes’ necks grow longer because they use it to get the food on high branches.
b. Some giraffes have a longer neck than others naturally. Only these giraffes will survive because they can get the food on high branches. Only these giraffes will have offspring.
c. The best adapted specimens survive.
d. A generation adapts to its environment.
e. The characteristics evolve in one generation.
f. The characteristics evolve over many generations.

What you learnt in this Web page

Summarize the information you’ve got (use your own words to explain Lamarck and Darwin’s theories to the class).
Write three sentences to prepare a presentation of your page to the group.

What you didn’t learn:

– if Lamarck’s theory came before or after Darwin’s;
– what animal Darwin studied first;
– Darwin’s nationality;
– how Darwin discovered the evolution of characteristics.s

Prepare the four questions to ask the rest of the class.