Final answer:
The first person to develop a theory for how organisms adapt to their environment over evolutionary time is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Although his theory of the inheritance of acquired characteristics was later debunked, it contributed to the early discussion on evolution which culminated in Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's natural selection concept.
Step-by-step explanation:
Contributors to the Concept of Evolution
The name of the first person to develop a theory for how organisms adapt to their environment over evolutionary time is Jean-Baptiste Lamarck. Lamarck proposed the mechanism of the inheritance of acquired characteristics, asserting that traits developed through an organism's life could be passed on to its offspring. Although this mechanism has been disproven, it was an early step towards understanding evolution. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace are later known for independently formulating the concept of natural selection, a major component of the modern theory of evolution.
Darwin's work was heavily influenced by his observations on the Galápagos Islands, which led to his hypothesis on natural selection and survival of the fittest. Wallace, during his study in the Malay Archipelago, also observed patterns of variation among species that supported the same idea. Their observations were bolstered by the ideas of other thinkers like Lyell and Malthus.
Unlike Darwin and Wallace's natural selection, Lamarck's theory suggested that organisms could pass on characteristics that they acquired during their lifetimes. This formed part of the foundation for later evolutionary theories but was later debunked after the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's work on genetics, leading to the modern synthesis of evolution.