Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A characteristic of an ancestral species or population that serves an adaptive though different function in a descendant species or population.
- noun The ability of a characteristic to assume a new biological function without evolutionary modification.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Previous adaptation; previous adjustment or conformation to some particular end.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun biology An
adaptation thatevolved in an ancestral population, in which it served a different function
Etymologies
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Examples
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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.
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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 2010
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Just the luck of the draw, or intentional preadaptation (front-loading)?
Critic in the Matrix 2007
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Can prosimian-like leaping be considered a preadaptation to bipedal walking in hominids?
Literally, flying lemurs (and not dermopterans) Darren Naish 2006
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So Gunther et al. (1992) titled a paper 'Can prosimian-like leaping be considered a preadaptation to bipedal walking in hominids'.
Literally, flying lemurs (and not dermopterans) Darren Naish 2006
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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.
Archive 2008-05-01 AYDIN 2008
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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.
Creature from brown slime AYDIN 2008
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Their behavior seems to be a preadaptation to living outside of water.
Archive 2007-04-01 AYDIN 2007
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Their behavior seems to be a preadaptation to living outside of water.
Melongena AYDIN 2007
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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.
Archive 2006-01-01 AYDIN 2006
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