Correct Answer: "acquired characteristics can be inherited"– giraffes’ necks are long because of generations of stretching.
the correct answer that aligns with lamarck's theory of evolution is: "acquired characteristics can be inherited" – giraffes' necks are long because of generations of stretching.
jean-baptiste lamarck was a french naturalist who proposed an early theory of evolution in the early 19th century. unlike the theory of natural selection proposed by charles darwin, lamarck's theory focused on the concept that individual organisms can develop traits during their lifetime due to environmental demands or their behavior, and then pass these acquired traits to their offspring. this principle is often summarized as the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
to illustrate, lamarck used the example of the giraffe. according to his theory, ancestral giraffes that stretched their necks to reach leaves high in trees gradually developed longer necks. over generations, this behavior led to the acquired trait of a longer neck being inherited by future generations, resulting in the modern giraffe's distinctively long neck. this idea suggests a direct and adaptive response to the environment, where useful changes acquired in a parent's lifetime can be directly transmitted to its offspring.
the other terms and quotations listed, such as "survival of the fittest" and concepts like catastrophism and uniformitarianism, do not align with lamarck's ideas. "survival of the fittest" relates to darwin's theory of natural selection, where individuals better adapted to their environment tend to survive and reproduce, passing their genes to the next generation. catastrophism and uniformitarianism deal with geological changes and do not directly relate to biological evolution theories proposed by lamarck.
in summary, lamarck's evolutionary theory is distinctly characterized by the belief in the inheritance of acquired characteristics, a concept exemplified by the idea that giraffes evolved long necks because their ancestors lengthened their necks through stretching over generations. this view, however, has been largely discredited by later genetic research, which supports darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection, emphasizing genetic inheritance and random mutation as key mechanisms of evolutionary change.
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