This example is talking about the fiddler crab, and it says that the fiddler crab shown below has one large claw and one small claw. How might Lamarck explain this observation? Right. So here we see this image of the crab, and we see this is the big claw, and then we have a little claw on the other side. Well, let's remember Lamarck's principles.
Right? We have use and disuse and the inheritance of acquired traits. Well, first off, let's think how would this crab start? How would this story probably start in this Lamarckian explanation? Well, I think the simple assumption would be that it would have claws of equal size.
Right? That would probably be the default. Alright. And then what about that idea of use and disuse? What would Lamarck likely say happened with this crab?
Well, he would probably say that it used one claw more, and in an individual's lifetime, we are going to say then that that claw got bigger. And then it would use one claw less, and that one, well through disuse, it got smaller. Alright, and then we have the idea of inheritance of acquired traits. So what would Lamarck then say? Well, we would say that the offspring would inherit one big and one small claw.
Alright. So though we need to remember that Lamarck was wrong, and we remember Lamarck today because of how he was wrong. So why is this so incorrect? Well, use and disuse, we are going to say that is not entirely correct. There are plenty of traits that do not become more or less enhanced by use, but certainly some do.
It is not completely wrong either. Where we want to identify him for being really wrong is this inheritance of acquired traits. We're going to say acquired traits are not inherited. Right. Today, we know that the genetic variation that we are talking about or the variation we are talking about in evolution, we need to talk about genetic variation.
Not variation that can develop during an organism's lifetime. Alright. More practice after this. See you there.