Exaptation, Nature’s Way to Bridge Past and Future
Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. Frank Herbert – Dune Exaptation, a term coined by palaeontologists Stephen Jay Gould and Elisabeth Vrba, refers to repurposing a trait during evolution. Initially serving one specific function, a trait can be co-opted for a different purpose. Charles Darwin was the first to propose that a trait’s function can evolve and change over time. This idea was initially referred to as “preadaptation”. However, because …