Introduction: experimental approaches to testing adaptation

Article Abstract:

Physiological and genetic manipulations can be quite useful in the examination of adaptive mechanisms. However, meaningful research can only be conducted if these adaptive mechanisms are examined in their ecological context. Examples of such experimental manipulations are the use of morphological traits to examine relative fitness and the use of genetic modification by mutation to create transgenic plants. These manipulations, when used in conjunction with studies of naturally occurring genetic architecture, can be used to examine selection in natural populations.

Evolution (Biology), Evolution, Population genetics

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Testing adaptationism: a comment on Orzack and Sober

Article Abstract:

S.H. Orzack and E. Sober's 'Optimality Models and the Test of Adaptationism' related to natural selection is valuable but flawed both in its definition of adaptationism and the techniques for testing it. The authors essentially make the error of attempting to blend a theory involving evolutionary structures with another involving evolutionary products, resulting in an endorsement of a testing procedure that is biased in favor of adaptationism.

Criticism and interpretation, Naturalists

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How to formulate and test adaptationism

Article Abstract:

R.N. Brandon and M.D. Rausher's 'Testing Adaptationism: A Comment on Orzack and Sober' is critical of the hypothesis that natural selection is an adequate explanation of the evolution of a trait of an individual in a population. However, the point being made is that the most favorable aspects of a particular trait are in fact, testable, and that the collecting of such tests enables one to examine the theory of adaptationism.

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