Early thinkers like Jean-Baptiste Lamarck played a big role in shaping modern ideas about evolution. His thoughts on how species adapt and pass down traits helped set the stage for later thinkers. Here are some important contributions he made:

1. Lamarckian Inheritance:

   • Lamarck believed that living things change based on how they use or don’t use certain traits.
   • For example, he thought that giraffes have long necks because their ancestors stretched to reach leaves high in the trees.

2. Adaptation:

   • He pointed out that species change to fit better in their surroundings over many years. This idea was later improved by Darwin.

3. Theories of Change:

   • Lamarck introduced the thought that life evolves and changes over time. This went against the earlier belief that species never changed.

4. Influence on Darwin:

   • Although Darwin didn’t agree with Lamarck’s idea of how changes happen, he did recognize that adapting to the environment is an important part of his own theory of natural selection.

In short, Lamarck’s ideas were key in moving scientists toward understanding evolution better.