AP BIOLOGY

EVOLUTION

HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR EVOLUTIONARY THEORY

Question [CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
The idea that acquired characteristics are passed to later generations was developed by ____
A
Darwin
B
Aristotle
C
Lamarck
D
Buffon
Explanation: 

Detailed explanation-1: -Lamarckism, a theory of evolution based on the principle that physical changes in organisms during their lifetime-such as greater development of an organ or a part through increased use-could be transmitted to their offspring.

Detailed explanation-2: -Lamarck is best known for his Theory of Inheritance of Acquired Characteristics, first presented in 1801 (Darwin’s first book dealing with natural selection was published in 1859): If an organism changes during life in order to adapt to its environment, those changes are passed on to its offspring.

Detailed explanation-3: -Scientists are not always remembered for the ideas they cherished most. In the case of the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, his name since the end of the nineteenth century has been tightly linked to the idea of the inheritance of acquired characters.

Detailed explanation-4: -Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime.

Detailed explanation-5: -Lamarck’s theory was instead driven by a ‘complexifying force’ which drove species to become ever more advanced. Along the way Lamarck argued that inheritance of acquired characteristics allowed organisms to adapt to their particular environments.

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