acquired traits
Gained through experience
Acquired traits are characteristics an organism develops during its lifetime through experience, environment, or learning, rather than inheriting them genetically.
A scar, a learned skill, or muscle built through exercise are acquired traits.
The concept matters in biology because acquired traits generally cannot be passed to offspring—a principle that distinguishes modern genetics from earlier theories like Lamarckism.
- learnedHaving much knowledge
- learned behaviorAction acquired through experience
- inheritedReceived from forebears
- nature vs nurtureWhat shapes us more
- adaptationFitting to new conditions
nurture · environment · blank slate · skills · survival skills · habits · behavior · experience · life experience · development · training · practice · use it or lose it · muscle memory · evolution · Lamarck · phenotype · muscle
- Human Developmentgrowth, heredity, aging, genetics, puberty
- early biologyAristotle, Linnaeus, Lamarck, taxonomy, natural history
- obsolete biologyspontaneous generation, vitalism, vital force, humors, humours
- geneticsDNA, allele, genotype, genes, gene
- obsolete sciencephlogiston, aether, phlogiston theory, ether, caloric
- trait types
acquired traitsinherited traits
Genetically transmitted features
innate traits · genetic traits · hereditary traits · nature · genetic inheritance
acquire, acquired, acquires, acquiring, acquirer, acquirers, acquirable, acquisition, acquisitions