a function other than that for which it was
developed through natural selection.
A next generation CAT-scan device developed for medical purposes is now widely used in industry to scan manufactured goods of all kinds. Would you say this medical device has been "exapted" for industrial purposes, wwh? Many new inventions are modelled on designs that occur in nature. Velcro (modelled on the burrs that cling to hikers) is the leading example. Would you say these designs have been "exapted" by entrepreneurs to create new products? Or am I misusing the word "exapted" with these examples? When scientists start tinkering with strands of a patient's DNA to overcome a genetic defect which might lead one day to an illness, would that be an example of "reverse exaption", wwh?