Lamarck, Jean-Baptiste

Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de la Marck was a French soldier, naturalist, academic and an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred and proceeded in accordance with natural laws. Lamarck developed a particular interest in botany, and later when the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle was founded in 1793, Lamarck was appointed as a professor of zoology. In 1801, he published Système des animaux sans vertèbres, a major work on the classifications of invertebrates, a term he invented. In an 1802 publication, he became one of the first to use the term biology in its modern sense. These beautiful shells are from one of his works on invertebrates and many were drawn by Redoute.