Summary
Did giraffes patrol Rome on leashes? Who was right, Lamarck or Darwin? Why do giraffes have long necks, if not to reach high places? Do giraffes mourn the dead?
Find out on this episode of Species.
Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QOzwo1SsGY4vNt2yMKQMYbdXwSxLZf2LOVOpVbwGJac/edit?usp=sharing
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Some people aren't treated well by history. We ridicule them. They become jokes, classroom memes, |
| 0:10.9 | belittled by teachers and students alike. Jean-Baptiste Lamarck is one such character. |
| 0:18.4 | Lamarck believed that organisms changed to their environment as necessary and then |
| 0:24.3 | passed on these changes to their offspring. The most famous example is the idea that giraffes |
| 0:31.8 | stretch their necks to reach the tops of trees and then pass on whatever stretching they achieved to their kids. |
| 0:40.2 | The image you might see in a high school biology teacher's PowerPoint is one of giraffes stretching |
| 0:46.5 | with all their might, trying to reach the top of a tree, and with great effort, succeeding. |
| 0:52.7 | This seems stupid today. |
| 0:55.8 | I remember in high school laughing at the ridiculous idea, |
| 0:59.2 | and I remember my teacher laughing with me. |
| 1:02.6 | Darwin's idea made a lot more sense. |
| 1:05.6 | Giraffes that could reach higher places survived and passed on their genes. |
| 1:10.4 | Giraffes that couldn't reach higher places simply died. |
| 1:15.0 | But what if Lamarck was, to some extent, correct? |
| 1:20.7 | And what if they were both wrong? |
| 1:23.9 | Today we're going to talk a bit about Lamarck, a bit about Darwin, a bit about Julius Caesar, of all people, and a lot about the giraffe. |
| 1:35.3 | Giraffa Camillepard Alice. |
| 1:38.2 | I'm Mackin. This is Species. |
| 1:44.5 | Welcome to the show. |
| 1:45.9 | Today we are going to talk about giraffes. |
| 1:48.2 | This episode, like many episodes, is a listener request. |
| 1:51.4 | And in return, I actually have a request for you listeners. |
... |
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