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Andrea BA's avatar

Well written! Thanks for revising this and then sharing. I thought the point of 'Spandrels' was that not *all* traits are adaptive – in that spirit, the spandrels, when considered as the equivalent of a trait, are not, even if their ornateness would make us think otherwise. I don't think Gould & Lewontin were arguing the pointy beak is not an adaptation.

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Ethan Linck's avatar

Yes, absolutely, that's good point—the pointy beak wasn't a great example, maybe, since it clearly is adaptive in many cases—was just trying to translate their idea with something that nonscientist readers might already assume is an adaptation. Thanks for reading!

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