EXAPTATION
| Collection | International Encyclopedia of Systems and Cybernetics |
|---|---|
| Year | 2004 |
| Vol. (num.) | 2(1) |
| ID | ◀ 1207 ▶ |
| Object type | Discipline oriented, Methodology or model |
Any adaptation that results of the posterior use of some feature arisen formerly
This neologism (I. TATTERSALL, 2001, p. 45) refers to the evolutive emergence of new useful functions in living beings which use some randomly appeared features which had no obvious utility to begin with.
He writes: “This is a useful name for characteristics that arise in one context before being exploited in another, or for the process by which such novelties are adopted in populations ”
And “the classic example of exaptation becoming adaptation is birds' feathers. These structures are essential nowadays to bird flight, but for millions of years before flight came along, they where apparently used simply as insulators (and maybe for nothing much at all before that)” (p. 43)
Tattersall gives another example:
- “…we have no idea at all about how the brain converts a mass of electrical and chemical signals into what we are individually familiar with as consciousness and thought patterns ” (ibid. p. 45)