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acquired characteristics |
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acquired characteristics, modifications produced in an individual plant or animal as a result of mutilation, disease, use and disuse, or any distinctly environmental influence. Some examples are docking of tails, malformation caused by disease, and muscle atrophy. The belief in the inheritability of acquired characteristics, proposed by the French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck Lamarck's theory of evolution, or Lamarckism, asserts that all life forms have arisen by a continuous process of gradual modification throughout geologic history. To explain this process he cited the then generally accepted theory of acquired characteristics , which held that new ..... Click the link for more information. in 1809, was widely accepted at one time, but is now rejected. Geneticists have affirmed that inheritance is determined solely by the reproductive cells and is unaffected by somatic (body) cells. How to thank TFD for its existence? Tell a friend about us, add a link to this page, add the site to iGoogle, or visit webmaster's page for free fun content. |
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| ? Mentioned in | ? References in periodicals archive | ||
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| He
performed blood-transfusion experiments on rabbits, which undermined
Darwin's effort to build upon Jean-Baptiste Lamarck's
suggestion that acquired characteristics can be inherited. 21) and what seems to be a sort of Lamarckian view on the
author's part on the inheritance of acquired characteristics (p. These targets were based on socialist
theory created by Stalin's favorite geneticist, Lysenko, who had
caused a sensation (and much Western incredulity) by claiming that
environmentally acquired characteristics would be inherited by the next
generation. |
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