The purpose of adaptation
Abstract
A central feature of Darwin’s theory of natural selection is that it explains the purpose of biological adaptation. Here, I: emphasise the scientific importance of understanding what adaptations are for, in terms of facilitating the derivation of empirically-testable predictions; discuss the population genetical basis for Darwin’s theory of the purpose of adaptation, with reference to the “fundamental theorem of natural selection”; and show that a deeper understanding of the purpose of adaptation is achieved in the context of social evolution, with reference to inclusive fitness and superorganisms.
Citation
Gardner , A 2017 , ' The purpose of adaptation ' , Interface Focus , vol. 7 , no. 5 , 20170005 . https://doi.org/10.1098/rsfs.2017.0005
Publication
Interface Focus
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
2042-8898Type
Journal article
Rights
& 2017 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
Collections
Items in the St Andrews Research Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.