Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A characteristic evolved by an ancestral species or population that serves an adaptive though different function in a descendant species or population.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Previous adaptation; previous adjustment or conformation to some particular end.
Wiktionary
- n. biology An adaptation that evolved in an ancestral population, in which it served a different function
Examples
“Recall that a Darwinian preadaptation is a feature of an organism of no use in the current selective enviornment that may become advantageous in a different environment.”
“Bergthorsson et al (2007) have described a way how a new function from a previously existing page function (so to speak a “preadaptation”) in a population could be established.”
Flagellum evolution -- how's your German? - The Panda's Thumb
“Just the luck of the draw, or intentional preadaptation (front-loading)?”
“Can prosimian-like leaping be considered a preadaptation to bipedal walking in hominids?”
“So Gunther et al. (1992) titled a paper 'Can prosimian-like leaping be considered a preadaptation to bipedal walking in hominids'.”
“In an aerial environment, simple invagination of external respiratory surfaces and subsequent internal elaboration could have given rise to a tracheal system...that later served as a preadaptation for tracheal gas exchange in the gills of aquatic insects.”
“Their behavior seems to be a preadaptation to living outside of water.”
“Littoraria angulifera and its relatives family Littorinidae satisfy the first 2 requirements: they can breathe air and their shells, which evolved in the oceans and were definitely a preadaptation for terrestrial life, protect them from drying when they are out of the water.”
“Now, the means employed by preadaptation is, if we take the matter in its simplest form, to be aware of sensations before they are experienced.”
The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps
“Let us examine, then, the process of preadaptation; it will enable us to thoroughly comprehend, not only the difference between the physical and the psychical laws, but the reason why the psychical manages in some fashion to mould itself upon the physical law.”
The Mind and the Brain Being the Authorised Translation of L'Âme et le Corps
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