Lamarckism: Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744 to 1829) was a French naturalist who is now infamous for the “giraffes stretched their necks to reach for food and therefore gave birth to offspring with long necks” example often alluded to in high school biology classes. However, contrary to popular opinion, Lamarck did not come up with the idea of “inheriting acquired characteristics,” although he sure got a lot of heat for it. As such, let’s just appreciate Lamarckism for what it represented at that time: a theory in support of an evolutionary driving force behind species diversity and complexity.