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Lamarck and the inheritance of acquired characteristics

Jean-Baptiste Lamarck

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For everyone

Lamarck argued that living things become more complex over time and that the development of an organ through use, or its withering through disuse, is passed to offspring. This view was largely abandoned in the 20th century. Recent work on epigenetic inheritance has led some researchers to discuss Lamarck again.

For specialists

Philosophie zoologique (1809) proposes two principles: an inherent tendency toward complexity, and the inheritance of characteristics acquired by environment-driven use and disuse. Weismann's germ-plasm theory (1892) held that somatic changes cannot pass to the germ line. The Luria–Delbrück experiment (1943) showed that bacterial mutations arise randomly before selection. Transmission over several generations via DNA methylation, small RNAs and chromatin states has been documented in plants and some animals; its extent in mammals is debated.

Claims

Evidence

Supporting

Genetic data

Some environmentally induced epigenetic marks have been documented to pass through more than one generation in various organisms.[3]

Challenging

Experiment

It was shown statistically that virus-resistance mutations in bacteria arise randomly before exposure to the virus.[2]

Connections

Parent

Views on the origin and diversity of living things

Related

The extended evolutionary synthesis

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Sources

  1. BookLamarck, J.-B. (1809). Philosophie zoologique. Dentu, Paris
  2. ArticleLuria, S. E.; Delbrück, M. (1943). Mutations of bacteria from virus sensitivity to virus resistance. Genetics 28(6), 491–511DOI 10.1093/genetics/28.6.491archive
  3. ArticleJablonka, E.; Raz, G. (2009). Transgenerational epigenetic inheritance: prevalence, mechanisms, and implications for the study of heredity and evolution. The Quarterly Review of Biology 84(2), 131–176DOI 10.1086/598822archive

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Cite this page

APA

Athena contributors. (2026). Lamarck and the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Retrieved November 1, 2026, from https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/lamarck/

BibTeX
@misc{athena_lamarck,
  title        = {Lamarck and the inheritance of acquired characteristics},
  author       = {{Athena contributors}},
  year         = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://latifkedi.github.io/athena/en/d/lamarck/}},
  note         = {Athena: The tree of human knowledge. Accessed: 2026-11-01}
}

Added: September 27, 2026 · Last changed: September 27, 2026 · Page history

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