Evolution is a process by which species change over the years. various views explaining how evolution takes place have been proposed by scientists across the decades. though most of these theories have been discarded, those of two scientists have been supported by different segments of the scientific community. jean-baptiste lamarck proposed the theory of inheritance of acquired characteristics to explain the process of evolution. it suggests that an organism can change itself willfully and pass on the acquired characteristics to the next generation or its offspring. individuals develop traits that are useful and discard others that are not according to a predefined plot. lamarck combined these two thoughts in his theory and substantiated them by evidence. one piece of evidence cited by him was that of the giraffe’s long neck. he said that giraffes stretched their necks to reach leaves on branches of high trees, and this gradually lengthened their necks over time. this acquired trait of a long neck was inherited by their offspring, and thus all giraffes now have long necks. if you were to debate lamarck today about his theory, what core concept in biology would you rely on? a) organisms lacking favorable traits will become extinct. b) mutations do not result in beneficial genetic variation. c) traits cannot be chosen willfully, but are randomly inherited from our parents. d) environmental stresses cause organisms to change, regardless of their genetic make-up.