“Just not so stories”: Exaptations, spandrels, and constraints
Aurelio José Figueredo a1andSarah Christine Berry a1 a1 Ethology and Evolutionary Psychology, Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721-0068
ajf@u.arizona.edusberry@u.arizona.edu
Abstract
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.
