Historical Constraints in Adaptation Theory: Traits and Non-Traits

Evolutionary ecologists as well as evolutionary ethologists and sociobiologists are concerned with seeking adaptational explanations to the traits of the organisms that they choose to study. Much has been written about the difficulties that are inherent in this adaptationist programme (e.g. Lewontin 1978, 1979, Gould and Lewontin 1979, Maynard Smith 1978). Little of this criticism concerns the phylogenetic aspect of the traits studied, and in this paper I will argue that phylogenetic knowledge is not only beneficial but necessary for the formulation of relevant hypotheses in evolutionary studies.