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Adaptation and the Evolution of Physiological Characters

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Abstract

The sections in this article are:

1 The Many Meanings of “Adaptation”
2 Criticisms of Adaptive Interpretations
3 Alternatives to Adaptive Explanations
3.1 Historical Inheritance
3.2 Developmental Pattern and Constraint
3.3 Physical and Biomechanical Correlation
3.4 Phenotypic Size Correlation
3.5 Genetic Correlation
3.6 Chance Fixation
4 Studying The Evolution of Physiological Characters
4.1 Macroevolutionary Studies
4.2 Microevolutionary Studies
5 Incorporating an Evolutionary Perspective into Physiological Studies
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Albert F. Bennett. Adaptation and the Evolution of Physiological Characters. Compr Physiol 2011, Supplement 30: Handbook of Physiology, Comparative Physiology: 3-16. First published in print 1997. doi: 10.1002/cphy.cp130101