Definition of adaptationism in English:
adaptationism
noun adəpˈteɪʃ(ə)nɪz(ə)mˌadapˈtāSHəˌnizəm
mass nounBiology The axiom or assumption that each feature of an organism is the result of evolutionary adaptation for a particular function.
Example sentencesExamples
- It is of course a short step from these premises to the view that adaptation is a universal moulder of forms and behaviour, and adaptationism a universal acid for dissolving away scientific problems.
- This joint consideration of Darwinian adaptationism and ecology has, in fact, produced the discipline of behavioral ecology.
- This makes adaptationism a powerful method for explaining why we think the way we do - but it does not mean that it is the only way of explaining it, or that it should be the preferred one.
- That's the continental tradition as much as adaptationism is the English tradition.
- The point of the critique of adaptationism, as Brandon reads it, was to remind us that factors other than selection are relevant to understanding the emergence of evolutionary patterns.
Derivatives
adjective & noun
Biology Many are underpinned by evolutionary and adaptationist paradigms.
Example sentencesExamples
- This is an adaptationist account of evolution, and one that most evolutionists would probably accept as uncontroversial.
- The problem with existing adaptationist hypotheses of human reproductive behavior is twofold.
- This facet of human psychology has attracted the notice of numerous adaptationists.
- Selectionist or adaptationist thinking was proposed by two Englishmen, Darwin and Wallace, and the first converts were also therefore British.