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Evolutionary By-Products

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Aptation; Co-opted adaptation; Co-opted spandrel; Exaptation; Non-aptation; Secondary adaptation; Spandrel

Yet living organisms are historical structures: literally creations of history. They represent, not a perfect product of engineering, but a patchwork of odd sets pieced together when and where opportunities arose. (François Jacob 1977 – Evolution and Tinkering, p. 1166)

Definition

In broad evolutionary terms, a by-product is a characteristic of an organism that evolved simply because it happened to be structurally and inextricably associated with an adaptation via historical constraints. As opposed to adaptations, evolutionary by-products are not the primary targets of natural selection. They have no functional design: they did not originate as solutions to adaptive problems. They only come about through the correlated selection of adaptations, and not because they were, themselves, originallyselectively advantageous (i.e., during the period of evolution of the...

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Acknowledgments

During the preparation of this manuscript, JBL was funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC, Discovery Grant #: 2015-06034), the Alberta Gambling Research Institute (AGRI, Major Grant#: 430-2019-00897), and a University of Lethbridge Research Fund (ULRF, Grant#: G00003482). JBL thanks Marta Linde-Medina, Logan Page, Sergio M. Pellis, and Paul L. Vasey for fruitful discussions on evolutionary by-products.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, AB, Canada

    Jean-Baptiste Leca

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  1. Jean-Baptiste Leca
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Correspondence to Jean-Baptiste Leca .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, MI, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, MI, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Environmental Ecology, Comenius University, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Pavol Prokop

  2. Institute of Zoology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Bratislava, Slovakia

    Pavol Prokop

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Leca, JB. (2020). Evolutionary By-Products. In: Shackelford, T.K., Weekes-Shackelford, V.A. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2850-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2850-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-16999-6

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