preadaptation

[ pree-ad-uhp-tey-shuhn ]

noun

, Biology.

1. a structure or property that developed in an ancestral stock and was useful in a descendant in a changed environment.

preadaptation

/ ˌpriːædəpˈteɪʃən /

noun

1. biology the possession by a species or other group of characteristics that may favour survival in a changed environment, such as the limblike fins of crossopterygian fishes, which are preadaptation to terrestrial life

Word History and Origins

Origin of preadaptation¹

First recorded in 1885–90; pre- + adaptation

Example Sentences

The unending richness of our culinary imaginations shows that food, like the mouth, is an example of preadaptation.

From The New Yorker

Another helpful preadaptation is a snippet of DNA that enhances the activity of the genes that drive the formation of limbs in the embryo.

From New York Times

Instead, the unique body plan of pselaphines might be the preadaptation.

From Scientific American

In pselaphines, the preadaptation is even less clear.

From Scientific American

Indeed, when Webber . state, “Such expansion can arise when the new location has nonanalogous climates but where the values of the key climatic variables…still fall within the species’ physiological limits,” they give credit to our approach of not considering nonanalog environments, because what they describe is precisely the preadaptation situation just discussed.

From Science Magazine