Question

Assertion (A): Weismann found that breeding mice whose tails were cut off, results in tail-less offspring.
Reason (R): Lamarckism states that characters acquired by an organism in its lifetime is passed on to its offsprings.

• A. A is true but R is false
• B. A is false but R is true
• C. Both A and R are true but R is not the correct explanation of A
• D. Both A and R are true and R is the correct explanation of A

Answer 1

The correct option is B A is false but R is true

Lamarck proposed a theory explaining the inheritance of acquired characters. This theory states that an individual can pass on characteristics that it acquires in its lifetime due to effect of environment, new needs, use and disuse of organs to the next generation. After several generations, the variations are accummulated up to such an extent that they give rise to a new species. This theory was proved wrong by August Weismann. He experimented with mice and found that offsprings of tail-less (tail chopped off during its lifetime) mice had tails.