# Genetic memory(?). Dad has tip of finger cut off, son has shorter finger.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory-dad-has-tip-of-finger-cut-off-son-has-shorter-finger/816052>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 13, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory-dad-has-tip-of-finger-cut-off-son-has-shorter-finger/816052 "2018-06-13T22:16:54Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory-dad-has-tip-of-finger-cut-off-son-has-shorter-finger/816052/41 "2018-06-14T16:12:46Z")

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> [@Leo\_Bloom](#):
>
> Absolutely. \*\*Current ATMB thread exactly on this. \*\*No need to start a new one, IMHO. [bold added]

**[Does this diserve a warning?](https://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=856760)** [_sic_] Which was from same poster. But it’s locked now, so there is need to start a new one, if one is so moved.

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**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\
**Post date:** [June 14, 2018, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/genetic-memory-dad-has-tip-of-finger-cut-off-son-has-shorter-finger/816052/42 "2018-06-14T16:35:04Z")

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> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#):
>
> This is [Lamarckism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamarckism), “the hypothesis that an organism can pass on characteristics that it has acquired during its lifetime to its offspring. It is also known as the inheritance of acquired characteristics or soft inheritance.”
> 
> Despite scientists searching for good evidence of this for the past 200 years, none has been found.
> 
> So, with seven billion people in the world are the chances that a finger shortening like this could just be coincidence good? Sure. There are plenty of threads here on amazing coincidences. This is another.

Not so; just google epigenetics or dna methylation. What happens to the parents can effect the offspring. Not like in the OP, that’s absurd, but if, for example, the parents experience starvation, this can effect the metabolism of their offspring and continue even further down the line. It is an area of active research. It actually is a form of Lamarkism (forget Lysenko; he was just a political hack, saying what Stalin wanted to hear).

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