The phrase "an evolutionary basis" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing the underlying evolutionary principles or foundations that explain a particular phenomenon or behavior.
Example: "The researchers found an evolutionary basis for the mating behaviors observed in various species."
Alternatives: "an evolutionary foundation" or "an evolutionary framework".
Human social behavior has an evolutionary basis.
But at this stage, you are more likely to see changes like that on, let's say, an evolutionary basis".
Humans can communicate compassion through facial gesture and touch, and these displays of compassion can serve vital social functions, strongly suggesting an evolutionary basis of compassion.
"Science and Religion Share Fascination in Things Unseen" (Essay, Nov. 8) speculates on an evolutionary basis for both the abstract theories embedded in religious belief and physicists' faith in their abstract theories.
In an accompanying article in Nature, behavioral ecologist Joan Silk (who wasn't involved in the study), points out that our desire to disprove an evolutionary basis for warfare may be wishful thinking.
People differ from rats in many ways, but the study supports a growing body of evidence that there's an evolutionary basis for helpful behavior, independent of culture or upbringing, Mason says.
Is there an obvious evolutionary basis for differences in peptide-binding repertoire?
"I fundamentally agree that there is a deep evolutionary basis for the relationship between a healthy body and a healthy mind," he says, a relationship that makes the term "jogging your memory" more literal than most of us might have expected and provides a powerful incentive to be active in 2013.
In 1975, Gould's Harvard colleague E. O. Wilson introduced his analysis of animal behavior (including human behavior) based on a sociobiological framework that suggested that many social behaviors have a strong evolutionary basis.
"That's got to have a real evolutionary basis to it," reasons Wansink.
Another important step was taken with the second edition in 1992, when the chapters were organized on the basis of the molecular phylogeny as a rational, evolutionary basis for the taxonomy of the prokaryotes.
