Exaptation

Quick meaning: Exaptation is a noun meaning (biology, evolutionary theory) The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.

Meaning

(biology, evolutionary theory) The use of a biological structure or function for a purpose other than that for which it initially evolved.

More Meanings

1. (linguistics, by extension) The promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work.

Example Sentences

Birds initially developed wings and feathers as a means of heat regulation. The use of wings for flight is an example of exaptation.

The process Haiman focuses on is exaptation, which he defines as "the promotion of meaningless or redundant material so that it does new grammatical (morphosyntactic or phonological) or semantic work" (p52).

An interesting consequence of this way of characterizing exaptations is that whether or not a trait counts as an exaptation depends upon how we describe it. Human legs are adaptations for locomotion, but exaptations for walking.

These presumed exaptations can be assigned to major categories associated with theories of movement (Nathan et al. 2008). In table 1.2, we list five categories of exaptations that we believe make resident birds possessing them preadapted for migration.

Word Forms

• exaptations

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include preadaptation, hyperadaptation, counteradaptation, adaptation, auxesis, adaptationism.

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