In many ways Lamarck is the real founder of evolutionary theory, not Darwin.
Although a generation earlier with less of the trappings of modern ‘professional’ science he nonetheless had the basics right (and this does not refer to his idea of adaptation, now in a comeback due to epigenetics).
He saw that evolution had two aspects:
a drive toward complexity
the adaptation of these forms environmentally.
this prefigures the idea of macro and micro evolution
Darwinism totally misses the first point, which implies some teleological aspect, which ‘scientists’ totally reject with darwinism as a substitute.