Spandrel

'''Spandrel''' is a term used in evolutionary biology describing a phenotypic characteristic that is considered to have developed during evolution as a [[Side-Effect|side-effect]] of an [[Adaptation|adaptation]], rather than arising from [[Natural Selection|natural selection]]. Spandrels are features of an organism which are not necessarily the product of an adaptive evolutionary process. They are traits carried along as a consequence of the architecture of organisms, like the spandrels in Gothic cathedral architecture. The term was coined by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and population geneticist Richard Lewontin in their influential paper "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme" (1979). They drew the analogy with spandrels in Renaissance architecture, which are curved areas of masonry above an arch, which they considered to be necessary side consequence arising from decisions concerned with the shape of the arch and the circumferential ring of the base of the dome, rather than being deliberately designed for direct utility in themselves. Properties that they singled out were the necessary number of four and their specific three-dimensional shape.



== Links ==

* Wikipedia Entry for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spandrel_(biology) Spandrel]
* Stephen Jay Gould and Richard C. Lewontin. [http://www.aaas.org/spp/dser/03_Areas/evolution/perspectives/Gould_Lewontin_1979.shtml "The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme"] ''Proc. Roy. Soc. London B'' '''205''' ([http://faculty.washington.edu/lynnhank/GouldLewontin.pdf 1979]) pp. 581-598
* Stephen Jay Gould (1997). [http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/94/20/10750 "The exaptive excellence of spandrels as a term and prototype"] ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA''. 94: 10750-10755.

[[Category:Evolutionary Principles]]