- Lamarckism, the idea that acquired traits during an organism's lifetime can be inherited by offspring, has regained scientific support after being discredited for over a century.
- Examples include C. elegans worms passing stress-adapted small RNAs to offspring, and rice plants inheriting cold resistance through epigenetic changes.
- Learned skills, such as killer whales teaching hunting techniques, also represent a form of Lamarckism.
- Lamarckism is not a replacement for Darwin's natural selection but a complementary driver of evolution, where organisms act as agents of selection for adaptive traits.
- Integrating Lamarckism into evolutionary theory can improve applications in agriculture, conservation (e.g., heat-resistant corals), and public health (e.g., preventing obesity and addiction across generations).