'Inheritance of Acquired characters' was the main point of:

Concept:

• The first theory of evolution was proposed by Lamarck.
• Lamarckism or Lamarckian inheritance is also known as "Neo-Lamarckism". 

Important Points

• Lamarck says that an organism can pass on to its offspring physical characteristics that the parent organism acquired through use or disuse during its lifetime.
• This idea is also called the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
• Example in support of Lamarckism-
  • Long necks and high forelimb of Giraffe.
  • Snakes lost their legs.
  • Retractile claws of carnivorous animals.

​Explanation:

• The theory was explained with the example of giraffe.
• It was stated the giraffe ancestors stretched their necks to reach out to the leaves on higher branches of a tree.
• This ones with longer neck were more successful in getting food and produced offspring with longer necks.
• This theory formed the early basis of biological evolution and also influenced Darwin's theory.
• It was rejected later in the mid-twentieth century because of lack of experimental proof.

Additional Information

• Mutation theory was proposed by Hugo-de-Vries.
• The theory of Natural Selection was proposed by Darwin and Wallace.