Lamarckism

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See Lamarckism in Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A theory of biological evolution proposed by French biologist Jean-Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, Chevalier de Lamarck in the 19th century. Essentially, the theory states that an organism acquires a trait during its lifetime, and is able to pass that trait onto any offspring it produces thereafter, i.e., a giraffe develops a slightly longer neck from stretching to reach leaves in trees, and has calves with longer necks, too, or a blacksmitch who develops powerful arms from pounding on the anvil having sons with powerful arms. Also, the theory states that if an organism does not use a particular trait, it loses the ability to use it, and does not pass it onto its offspring. However, the theory was eventually discredited, as it failed to explain why some traits still needed to be learned, like learning how to tie one's shoelaces, and how other traits, i.e., having lost one's arm through an accident, were not passed on.

See also Lysenkoism

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