Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
An acquired characteristic is a non-heritable change in a function or structure of a living organism caused after birth by disease, injury, accident, deliberate modification, variation, repeated use, disuse, misuse, or other environmental influence. Acquired traits are synonymous with acquired characteristics.
Sociobiology is a field of biology that aims to explain social behavior in terms of evolution.It draws from disciplines including psychology, ethology, anthropology, evolution, zoology, archaeology, and population genetics.
Biology has largely rejected the idea that evolution is guided in any way, [88] [73] but the evolution of some features is indeed facilitated by the genes of the developmental-genetic toolkit studied in evolutionary developmental biology. An example is the development of wing pattern in some species of Heliconius butterfly, which have ...
Lamarck argued, as part of his theory of heredity, that a blacksmith's sons inherit the strong muscles he acquires from his work. [1]Lamarckism, also known as Lamarckian inheritance or neo-Lamarckism, [2] is the notion that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime.
Erasmus was an early proponent of what we now refer to as "adaptations", albeit through a different transformist mechanism – he argued that sexual reproduction could pass on acquired traits through the father’s contribution to the embryon. These changes, he believed, were mainly driven by the three great needs of life: lust, food, and security.
Examples of variations which may be given different values in different societies include skin color and/or body structure. Race and sex have a strong value difference, while handedness has a much weaker value difference. The values given to different traits among human variability are often influenced by what phenotypes are more prevalent ...
In this metaphor, a canalised trait is illustrated as a valley (which he called a creode) enclosed by high ridges, safely guiding the phenotype to its "fate". Waddington claimed that canals form in the epigenetic landscape during evolution, and that this heuristic is useful for understanding the unique qualities of biological robustness.
A phenotypic trait is an obvious, observable, and measurable characteristic of an organism; it is the expression of genes in an observable way. An example of a phenotypic trait is a specific hair color or eye color. Underlying genes, that make up the genotype, determine the hair color, but the hair color observed is the phenotype.