Hutton and Lyell concluded that the processes that shaped the Earth continue until the present time and observing these events may be the key to understanding the natural world and the Earth’s history even better.

Lamarck explained that due to the involvement of natural selection in the way animals use their organs or body parts, organisms have altered, acquired and lost particular traits in their entire lifetime. Those traits that are well-adapted to the environment are passed down to the next generation. As a result, evolution in the species occurs.

Malthus proposed the relationship between population and resources. He suggested that a high population growth may lead to overpopulation and it would negatively affect the supply of food and living space. In order to limit population growth, he classified the factors into two broad categories: positive checks and preventative checks. Positive checks include disease, famine, and war. On the other hand, preventative checks include moral restraints such as abstinence and delayed marriage.

Artificial selection is the process by which the breeding of certain animals and plants are done to produce an offspring with a desirable or useful trait. In this process, inherited variation plays a vital role since the selected traits are transferred into the offspring through heredity. Examples of artificial selection include breeding fast horses for racing, breeding hens that lay bigger eggs, and breeding crops that are resistant to certain diseases or pests.

Fossils serve as clues that show us what the Earth’s past was like. If there are fossils of marine organisms in the mountains, this indicates that this particular area has been submerged in the water during the past. Due to the movement of plates on the Earth’s surface, the ocean crust has collided with the continents and caused mountains and mountain ranges to form. As a result, the remains of the sea creatures that are deposited on the ocean floor are now exposed in the mountains.

Lamarck’s big idea about adaptation was rejected by the scientific community. His claim about an organism’s acquired trait from its life experiences, which is transferred into the offspring, is not accepted because this trait does not affect the genes of an individual; hence, it cannot be inherited.

However, a rejected theory in science is still useful because it can be used as a basis for other studies. Lamarck’s work helped Darwin make a connection between the animals and their environment in order to form better ideas about evolutionary processes.

The answer is no. In artificial selection, nature provides the variation. Then, the humans carefully select the desirable traits for breeding. In this process, heredity plays a vital role since the selected traits are transferred into the offspring through inheritance. Therefore, if there is no inheritance, artificial selection would not take place.