[asianthrowaway]

> but the specifics of how that will be expressed appears to be picked up environmentally and transmitted to offspring.

I mean I guess that is a possibility, but that would be incredibly generic wouldn't it? That a cell could somehow identify novel environmental factors and figure out what gene expressions to enhance/neutralize in the next generation to adapt to that novel environmental factor? Strains credulity.

[iguy]

In my limited understanding, the credible version of this story involves the transmission of quite crude information, like a response to famine.

Lots of animals starved, since there were animals, and the ability to tune the behavior on a time-scale of a few generations might have been valuable, so it might have evolved. The basics of our hormonal system have not changed much since very simple animals, I think.

[asianthrowaway]

Yes this is how I understood it too. Makes sense that such a feature would evolve when you think about it.