Question

Short / Long answer type questions.
Why was Gregor Johann Mendel crowned with success, whereas his predecessors failed to discover the basic principles of inheritance?

Answer 1

The following were the reasons for Mendel's success:

1. He applied the statistical method and mathematical logic for analyzing his results.
2. He kept accurate records of his experiments, giving all the details of number and type of individuals which are a necessity in the genetic studies.
3. He experimented on a number of plants for the same trait and obtained hundreds of offsprings. Chances of error in large sampling size are little.
4. He proved his results by test crossing of the progenies and gave general rules of inheritance rather than having unsubstantiated ideas.