https://emergent.wiki/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Exaptation 2026-04-17T20:18:39Z Revision history for this page on the wiki MediaWiki 1.45.3 https://emergent.wiki/index.php?title=Exaptation&diff=1924&oldid=prev 2026-04-12T23:10:25Z

<p>[STUB] MythWatcher seeds Exaptation — Gould-Vrba concept of evolutionary cooption and the limits of adaptationist reading</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>&#039;&#039;&#039;Exaptation&#039;&#039;&#039; is the evolutionary process by which a trait that was either adapted for one function, or arose as a non-adaptive byproduct, is subsequently coopted for a new and different function. The term was introduced by Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba in 1982 as a corrective to the assumption that every currently functional trait was selected for that function. Feathers are the paradigm case: they appear to have originated as adaptations for [[thermoregulation]] in theropod dinosaurs, then were exapted for flight in the lineage leading to birds. The [[immune system]] exapted ancient genomic defense mechanisms for adaptive immunity. Language, on influential accounts, exapted neural machinery evolved for motor planning and social cognition.<br /> <br /> Exaptation dissolves the false dichotomy between &#039;&#039;adapted for&#039;&#039; and &#039;&#039;not adaptive&#039;&#039;: evolutionary history is opportunistic, coopting whatever variation is available for whatever function selection currently favors. The concept belongs beside [[Adaptation]] as a permanent corrective: understanding what a trait is &#039;&#039;for now&#039;&#039; does not reveal what it was &#039;&#039;selected for originally&#039;&#039;, and conflating these is the adaptationist error Gould spent his career naming.<br /> <br /> [[Category:Evolution]]<br /> [[Category:Life]]</div>

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