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The Selective Organism: An Expanded Theory of Adaptive Evolution

Autor Pim Edelaar
en Limba Engleză Paperback – 27 aug 2026
It is typically said that there is natural selection on the genetic variation that affects ecological performance. However, this description of adaptive evolution seems too simple.In The Selective Organism, Pim Edelaar starts with two example studies that cannot be understood using the standard theory of adaptive evolution. This is because traditional interpretations of the three classical requirements for adaptive evolution—variation, selection and inheritance—have been too narrow. The Selective Organism shows how our biological interpretation of each requirement can be expanded.Edelaar integrates these expansions into a visually appealing causal model, and uses it to explore the consequences of this expanded theory of adaptive evolution. This shows that many consequences only involve the quantitative outcomes of the evolutionary process, and several are already wellknown. However, we also encounter a qualitative change in how the evolutionary process can operate: there is now a second driver of adaptive evolution. The first and classical driver, involving natural selection, can be summarized as the 'selective reproduction of heritable variation'. The second driver can be summarized as the selective production of heritable variation, since here the selective process comprises the developmental decisions made by the organism.This expanded theory of adaptive evolution can satisfactorily explain the two puzzling case studies, as well as a diversity of other biological phenomena, such as epigenetic inheritance and cultural evolution. These developments hold important theoretical and philosophical consequences and provide many suggestions for novel and insightful empirical research.
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Specificații

ISBN-13: 9780198876014
ISBN-10: 0198876017
Pagini: 192
Dimensiuni: 189 x 246 mm
Editura: OUP OXFORD
Colecția OUP Oxford
Locul publicării:Oxford, United Kingdom

Notă biografică

Pim Edelaar is a Full Professor at the Pablo de Olavide University, Spain, and Guest Professor at Lund University, Sweden. He completed a MSc and PhD in animal ecology and behavioural ecology in The Netherlands. His research and work focuses on adaptive population divergence, speciation, and evolutionary biology. He has completed post-doctoral research at various research institutes and universities in Argentina, the USA, Sweden, and Spain.

Recenzii

In his thought-provoking book, The Selective Organism, Pim Edelaar presents an expanded view of adaptive evolution. He argues that our current gene-centric theory overlooks the numerous ways in which organisms can shape their own evolution. This book promises to ignite many fascinating discussions and is a "must-read" for anyone interested in evolution.
With clarity and originality, The Selective Organism advances our theory of adaptive evolution by reframing it around organisms and their environments. It offers not only biologists but also philosophers an indispensable guide and new avenues to think about and study variation, selection, and inheritance- a future cornerstone of teaching!
It has long been known that adaptive evolution emerges from the interplay of trait variation among organisms, heritability, and selection favoring some variants over others. Pim Edelaar creatively proposes that the interplay of plasticity (broadly defined to include habitat choice) as a form of organism selectivity (akin to natural selection), and non-standard modes of trait variation and inheritance (including via altered environments) can influence each of the biological principles that collectively lead to adaptation, in effect providing an emergent novel driver of adaptive evolution... This engagingly written monograph will surely spark a robust and timely debate in the evolutionary literature.
Dr. Pim Edelaar develops a timely and provocative conceptual case for the 'selective production of heritable variation' as a second driver of adaptive evolution alongside natural selection. He begins with the production of adaptive alternative phenotypes during development and argues that much of organismally produced variation is similarly biased adaptively, i.e., toward higher fitness. By essentially substituting adaptive plasticity for natural selection, he argues that, during development, an organism gathers and taps into a vast store of information about the environmental challenges it may face in its lifetime. The central message of the book is that organisms play a much greater role in their own evolution than they are currently accorded by standard evolutionary genetic theory.
I love how this book starts with a puzzling observation of nature, keeps digging, and at bottom reframes core theoretical concepts. For example, an empirical study showed that a particular type of habitat choice led to a new kind of nongenetic heritability. Digging, the author finds such novel nongenetic heritable variation leads to a novel type of evolutionary process. It's an evolutionary loop. A new phenotype changes the nature of variation, heritability, and selection, which creates new phenotypes. Surprising consequences sometimes follow.