exaptation

This process, known as exaptation, is where a trait or behavior that was adapted for one function is later co-opted and used for something entirely different (such as bird feathers adapted for use in thermoregulation and only later being useful for flight).

Brain Blogger 2009

This process, known as exaptation, is where a trait or behavior that was adapted for one function is later co-opted and used for something entirely different (such as bird feathers adapted for use in thermoregulation and only later being useful for flight).

Brain Blogger 2009

This process, known as exaptation, is where a trait or behavior that was adapted for one function is later co-opted and used for something entirely different (such as bird feathers adapted for use in thermoregulation and only later being useful for flight).

Brain Blogger 2009

I much prefer Stephen Jay Gould and Elizabeth Vrba's term "exaptation" for the various characteristics of living organisms.

Crossroads 2009

Gould & Vrba (1982) would deny that sand-digging is a function of turtle flippers and prefer instead to label it an "exaptation".

Teleological Notions in Biology Allen, Colin 2003

So as I understand the term, at least as Gould defined it, the use of our hand for swimming is an example of exaptation.

Crossroads 2009

What worries me at the core, I think, is the idea that a moral dicta imposed around “rape”, proscribing its “casual” use as vulgar, rendering it an act of moral transgression to speak this word flippantly, while it might serve to affirm the gravity of the crime, might at the same time, for that very reason, prime that word for exaptation into the realm of swearing proper.

On Profanity: 4 Hal Duncan 2009

What worries me at the core, I think, is the idea that a moral dicta imposed around “rape”, proscribing its “casual” use as vulgar, rendering it an act of moral transgression to speak this word flippantly, while it might serve to affirm the gravity of the crime, might at the same time, for that very reason, prime that word for exaptation into the realm of swearing proper.

Archive 2009-01-01 Hal Duncan 2009

I think to some degree each of these can also be listed as examples of exaptation.

Crossroads 2009

The reason I go into the whole song and dance about exaptation with my students is that it makes them think about reality in a way that almost none of them have thought about it before.

Crossroads 2009

While an adaptation is a new trait that was selected for the way it improved an organism’s fitness, exaptations retool existing useful structures for new purposes.

Where is the dividing line between you and the world? – Frédérique de Vignemont & Colin Klein | Aeon Essays Frédérique de Vignemont 2023

Exaptation is a solution to the following problem in evolutionary biology: what good is a partially functional wing?

Battleshorts, exaptations, and the limits of STAMP Lorin Hochstein 2020