acquired characteristics
A Dictionary of Zoology | Date: 1999
acquired characteristics Characteristics that are acquired by an organism during its lifetime. According to early evolutionary theorists (e.g.
Lamarck),
traits acquired in one generation in response to environmental stimuli may be inherited by the next generation. Thus over several generations a particular type of organism would become better adapted to its environment. The heritability of such characteristics is now discredited.
© A Dictionary of Zoology 1999, originally published by Oxford University Press 1999.
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