How are traits, such as the color of a cat, passed on?
Heredity is the passing of traits, such as fur color, from one or two parent organisms to their offspring. The color of your eyes, the shape of your ears, and even the length of your toes are all the result of heredity. During the mid – 1800’s a scientist named Gregor Mendel worked to understand how heredity works. Mendel worked with thousands of pea plants in his monastery’s garden. Through careful observation he was able to set forth some laws about how heredity works. His experiments took place during Charles Darwin’s lifetime, but Darwin knew very little about them. Mendel did experiments with thousands of pea plants to monitor both self- and cross-fertilization. From these experiments, he discovered what are called the “Laws of Inheritance:” 1. In these laws, he notes that each plant passed on something to their offspring. He called this something a “factor.” 2. Mendel observed that for each visible quality of peas, such as the color of the flowers and the shape of the peas, there
