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“Just not so stories”: Exaptations, spandrels, and constraints

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 August 2003

Aurelio José Figueredo  and
Sarah Christine Berry
Aurelio José Figueredo
Affiliation:
Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068 ajf@u.arizona.edusberry@u.arizona.edu
Sarah Christine Berry
Affiliation:
Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068 ajf@u.arizona.edusberry@u.arizona.edu
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Abstract

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It is anthropomorphic to speak of Nature designing adaptations for a specific function, as if with conscious intent. Any effect constitutes an adaptive function if it contributes to survival and to reproduction. Natural selection is blind to what might have been the original function. Mutations arise by purest accident and are selected based on whatever fortuitous effects they might produce.

Type
Brief Report
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 25 , Issue 4 , August 2002 , pp. 517 - 518
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press