Lamarckism, proposed by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, suggested that acquired traits during an organism’s lifetime could be passed on to offspring.

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Lamarckism proposed that organisms could adapt to their environment and then pass on those acquired traits to their descendants. However, this theory has been largely discredited in modern biology.

The mechanism of inheritance proposed by Lamarck, called the inheritance of acquired characteristics, lacked empirical evidence and did not align with the understanding of genetics and inheritance. Darwin’s theory of natural selection, coupled with the discoveries in genetics, particularly Mendel’s laws and later developments in molecular biology, provided a more robust explanation for how traits are inherited.

The concept of acquired characteristics influencing heredity contradicts the fundamental principles of genetics, which highlight that genetic information is passed down through DNA and that changes in an organism’s traits during its lifetime are not directly transferred to its offspring’s genetic code.

While Lamarckism played a role in shaping early evolutionary thought, especially before the elucidation of genetics, it is now considered an outdated and inadequate explanation for the mechanism of inheritance and evolution.