Digital SAT Reading and Writing Practice Question #511

In evolutionary biology, the standard neo-Darwinian synthesis posits that genetic mutations occur randomly, and natural selection subsequently acts upon these random variations. However, some contemporary biologists argue that epigenetic modifications—chemical alterations to DNA that regulate gene expression without changing the underlying genetic sequence—can be directly induced by environmental stressors and subsequently inherited by offspring. These biologists assert that this transgenerational epigenetic inheritance represents a directed, non-random mechanism of evolution, allowing populations to adapt to specific environmental pressures far more rapidly than random mutation would permit. Which finding, if true, would most directly undermine the biologists’ claim regarding the evolutionary significance of epigenetic inheritance?