Exaptation—a Missing Term in the Science of Form

By S. Gould, E. Vrba. 1982

Subfields: Computational Biology & Bioinformatics

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Citations in the corpus

The Surprising Creativity of Digital Evolution: A Collection of Anecdotes from the Evolutionary Computation and Artificial Life Research Communities (2018, background): “Although evolution lacks the foresight and intentionality of human creativity, structures evolved for one functionality are often opportunistically adapted for other purposes, a phenomenon known as exaptation [54].”
Evolutionary game theory: Temporal and spatial effects beyond replicator dynamics (2009, background): “1Borrowing the term introduced by Gould and Vrba in evolutionary theory, see [7].”
The Coevolution of Institutional Entrepreneurship: A Tale of Two Theories (2010, background): “Exaptation is the idea that features once well adapted for a particular purpose or currently remaining idle or dormant may be co-opted or “ex-apted” for new uses (Gould & Vrba, 1982).”
The evolution of geographic variation in birdsong (2007, background): “Evolutionary responses to specific functions, through their impacts on morphology, physiology, and behavior, may also alter how other traits are expressed, or even provide opportunities for the evolution of new functions (Gould and Vrba, 1982; Patek et al., 2006).”
Intracolony vibroacoustic communication in social insects (2013, background): “In these cases, vibroacoustic modalities of communication can be thought of as exaptations sensu Gould and Vrba (1982) that have adaptive values that were not components of the adaptive evolution of the structures that produce the messages.”
Ultramafic soils and species sorting in the flora of New Caledonia (2010, background): “According to Gould & Vrba (1982), exaptations are ‘features that now enhance fitness but were not built by natural selection for their current role.’”
Language as shaped by the brain. (2008, background): “Another option would be to appeal to exaptation (Gould & Vrba 1982), whereby a biological structure that was originally adapted to serve one function is put to use to serve a novel function.”
The Evolution of Language: A Comparative Review (2005, unknown): “Gould and Vrba (1982), suggesting that the term preadaptation connoted foresight, and coined a new term – 'exaptation' – for old traits put to new use (or the process by which this occurs).”
The Evolution, Function, and Meaning of Marmot Alarm Communication (2007, background): “We inferred from this that calling may have initially evolved as a means to communicate with the predator, and we suggested that its initial function was detection signaling that was subsequently exapted (Gould and Vrba, 1982) to serve its conspecific warning function.”