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Inheritance

When living things reproduce they pass on characteristics to their offspring. This is known as inheritance.

You’ve probably noticed that you might look like your parents. This is because you inherit key characteristics from them, like your eye colour, skin colour and height.

All living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring are not identical to their parents; there are variations that make them different.

For example, if you cross two different breeds of dog, you get a dog with a combination of characteristics. Some characteristics come from their mother and some from their father.

However, you don't inherit everything from your parents. For example things like hairstyle, scars and ear piercings.