Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

About Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829) was a significant French naturalist who made notable contributions to biology, particularly in invertebrate systematics and early evolutionary thought. He is ranked #869 in historical importance by MIT’s Pantheon project, largely due to his theory of transformation, often termed Lamarckism, which proposed that acquired characteristics could be inherited by offspring. Although later superseded by Darwinian evolution, Lamarck's work represented a key early attempt to construct a comprehensive, naturalistic explanation for biological change over time.

Lamarck's cultural footprint in 2025 internet attention appears significantly diminished relative to his historical standing. He garnered approximately 147K annualized Wikipedia views, placing him in an attention category with an Attention Gap of -2x, indicating underattention compared to his HPI Rank of #869. For context, this means he receives substantially less modern digital traffic than figures of comparable historical weight. Furthermore, this interest is waning, as his year-over-year change shows a decline of 19.0% in pageviews.

This steady decline in online interest is also reflected in his short-term tracking, with Q1 versus Q3 2025 momentum dropping by 20%. This pattern suggests that while Lamarck remains a recognized figure in the historical record, his presence in contemporary digital discourse is in a state of gradual erosion.