We have been harsh on Lamarckianism. But we should not lose sight of the fact that Lamarck was an early supporter of the notion that species change through gradual evolution. He was wrong about the mechanisms, and he was wrong in believing that all evolution tends towards greater complexity, producing more and more complex and perfect organisms. But he was brave enough to state that humans were the end point of evolution, and that they could have evolved from apes - a radical notion, even when Darwin published The Origin of Species.
Lamarck believed in evolution, but not in extinction. Indeed, Lamarck believed that species evolved instead of going extinct. His explanation of the fossil record was that, because the environment was constantly changing, organisms needed to change too. Fossils were just a record of their past.
