Theories formulated by Lamarck and Darwin are analyzed in a sample of Brazilian textbooks on biology published in a period of sixty years. Darwin's theory is covered more than Lamarck's theory. Among the analyzed books, an important mention must be addressed for BSCS editions, since the example of the elongation of the giraffes" necks for illustrating differences between both theories is presented in this series for the first time, and since then has been adopted by the majority of other textbooks on biology. The main concepts presented as representative of Darwin's and Lamarck's theories by all textbooks are natural selection and the inheritance of acquired characters, respectively. Not only theories but also the authors are differently presented in reviewed textbooks: while Darwin is presented as a model of scientist, Lamarck appears as a speculative theoretician, his theoretical propositions being remarkably deformed and changed from their original formulations.
Evolution; Lamarck and Darwin theories; Biology Textbooks
