Definition of "exaptation" [exaptation]

• Biology The utilization of a structure or feature for a function other than that for which it was developed through natural selection. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "This process, known as exaptation, is where a trait or behavior that was adapted for one function is later co-opted and used for something entirely different (such as bird feathers adapted for use in thermoregulation and only later being useful for flight)."
• "I much prefer Stephen Jay Gould and Elizabeth Vrba's term "exaptation" for the various characteristics of living organisms."
• "Gould & Vrba (1982) would deny that sand-digging is a function of turtle flippers and prefer instead to label it an "exaptation"."