Question

Read the following two statements related to Lamarckism and find out the correct option.

Statement 1: Lamarck believes in use and disuse of organs.
Statement 2: Characters present in the offspring are independent of those in their parents.

Answer 1

Statement 1: The theory of use and disuse of organs (theory of inheritance of acquired characters) is proposed by Jean Baptiste Lamarck. According to this theory, an organ used constantly tends to become more developed whereas the disuse of an organ results in degeneration and ultimately leads to its disappearance.

Statement 2: If an organism changes some characters during its lifetime in order to adapt to its environment, those changes are passed on to its offspring. That means the new characters developed in an offspring are dependent upon their parents.

Example of use and disuse of organs: As per Lamarckism, ancestral giraffes had short necks. They stretched their necks to obtain leafy food from tall trees. The continued stretching resulted in the modern long necked giraffes.

Hence, statement 1 is true and statement 2 is false.