Final answer:
Jean Baptiste Lamarck is the scientist who incorrectly explained evolution as acquired traits being passed down to offspring.
Step-by-step explanation:
The scientist who incorrectly explained evolution as acquired traits being passed down to offspring is Jean Baptiste Lamarck. Before Charles Darwin's theory of evolution became widely accepted, Lamarck proposed the idea of the inheritance of acquired characteristics. Lamarck believed that modifications in an individual's lifetime caused by its environment or the use and disuse of a structure could be inherited by its offspring. However, Lamarck's theory has since been discredited, and the prevailing theory of evolution is based on Charles Darwin's concept of natural selection.