This refers to the hypothesis that an organism can pass on the different characteristics that it acquired during its own lifetime to its offspring. It is argued that the various changes that happen to the body of an organism in order to enable it to adapt to changes in its environment can actually be passed on to its offspring. The Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics, apart from Darwin’s famous theory of natural selection, has been used to explain the natural process of evolution of species. It is named after French biologist Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.
