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actually, Stephen J. Gould, arguably one of the most accessible evolutionary biologists of the day, had a rationale for coining the word exaptation. you could look it up, but it boils down to this: he wanted a term that would include pre-adaptation and another concept which has been called "spandrels".
Gould has written a paper suggesting that the word “spandrel” be used in biology to name features that arise without initial adaptive functions (e.g., those that are architectural by-products of development) but take on new functions later in evolution (Gould 1997).
Gould had earlier proposed, in a paper with Elizabeth Vrba (Gould and Vrba 1982), that we call traits that perform a current adaptive function but arose either for some other function or with no adaptive function at all [my emphasis] as “exaptations.” Thus both preadaptations and “spandrels” qualify as exaptations. The terminology may seem very nitpicky, but it forces us to think about the details of a trait and how it might have evolved, and it forces us to go beyond the mere creation of plausible stories in the study of adaptation.
http://biosci264.bsd.uchicago.edu/adaptation.html
Entire Thread Subject Posted By Posted exaptation wwh 12/15/01 11:05 PM Re: exaptation tsuwm 12/15/01 11:38 PM Re: exaptation wwh 12/16/01 12:20 AM Re: exaptation Sparteye 12/16/01 12:38 AM Re: exaptation tsuwm 12/16/01 12:45 AM Re: exaptation Jackie 12/16/01 02:35 AM Max Quordlepleen 12/16/01 02:37 AM Re: exaptation Jackie 12/16/01 03:02 AM Re: exaptation Sparteye 12/17/01 03:31 AM Re: exaptation Wordwind 12/17/01 09:24 AM Re: exaptation plutarch 12/16/01 03:24 AM Re: exaptation Wordwind 12/16/01 09:15 AM Re: exaptation milum 12/16/01 10:42 AM Re: exaptation wwh 12/16/01 02:24 PM Re: exaptation Capital Kiwi 12/16/01 02:59 PM Re: exaptation Jackie 12/16/01 04:49 PM Re: exaptation stales 12/17/01 12:50 AM Re: exaptation tsuwm 12/17/01 12:58 AM Re: exaptation Jackie 12/17/01 03:24 AM Re: exaptation Faldage 12/17/01 03:03 PM Re: exaptation milum 12/18/01 02:07 PM Re: exaptation (not exadaptation) Faldage 12/18/01 03:00 PM Re: exaptation (not preadaptation) tsuwm 12/18/01 03:34 PM Re: exaptation (not preadaptation) Keiva 12/18/01 03:43 PM Thanks, tsuwm Faldage 12/18/01 05:11 PM Re: Thanks, tsuwm milum 12/18/01 11:18 PM Re: exaptation (not preadaptation) Capital Kiwi 12/27/01 04:05 PM Re: exaptation stales 12/17/01 01:40 AM
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