Did the scientist discrediting Lamarckian evolution do the wrong test, more tests needed?

Question

Animals have tails for assisting in balance and steering, propulsion, grasping, grooming (swatting flies is one example) and for display. Why would a mouse lose it's tale because we chopped them off for generations if the animal needs the tale? I think this test is completely false. Why would women grow holes for earing's in their ears if their is no life and death benefit to wearing earing's and having a hole in the ear? Why would you even assume a woman could grow that hole? There is not life or death benefit to having it in the first place. Evolution has to do with survival, if the mouse didn't need the tale then the tale would either shorten over time, or there would be a mutation in one of the mice to have no tale. Isn't the test showing that mouse offspring obtaining genetics to find cheese on the other side of the maze more accurate. Even with no natural selection, they are passing down traits that have something to do with survival. They only get to eat if they get the cheese.

Answer 1

You are correct mostly, if I read all that right. But you might consider that it isn't always life and death for an individual mouse, but may be that more of one type survive than another type. Or, even more interestingly, one type has more offspring for whatever reason- maybe no tail is sexier.

But some sort of feed back would be handy in evolution. It would help answer the questions we have about why evolution seems to work comparatively more swiftly than at other times. As far as I know we haven't found any clear Lamarckian mechanism, but I understand that currently, the idea of some form (on a microscopic scale) is being sought by current researchers.

Answer 2

First of all, I want to say that what you consider life/death benefit should really be offspring benefit. If all the guys suddenly got horny for women with holes in their ears, if that is genetically coded for and can be passed down, then you can bet that it will evolve. Life and death traits only matter with regard to the ability of the individual to reproduce successfully. That is why, for example, a disease like diabetes can become so prevalent, because the disease doesn't prevent the person from being able to reproduce (As opposed to Hurler's syndrome). Having said that, no, acquired traits cannot be passed down.