telegony
/tɪˈlɛɡəni/
noun
- A discredited biological theory that a male's previous offspring can influence the traits of a female's later offspring by a different male.
- Farmers once used telegony to explain why a purebred mare's foal sometimes resembled an earlier stallion.
- Telegony was widely believed in the 19th century but was abandoned after the discovery of genetics.
- Modern biology rejects telegony because offspring inherit DNA only from their actual parents.