Sentence examples for had been adaptive from inspiring English sources

G recognizes that two selective pressures are now present and that a trait that had been adaptive is now maladaptive, but does not recognize the change in rate of natural selection.

Why? 3, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4, 4c S recognizes that the shift in prey preference represents a shift in the environment and that the trait that had been selected against is now being selected for; similarly, a trait that had been adaptive is now maladaptive.

What would happen if you added a second species of predator with a different prey preference? 2, 3, 3a, 3b, 3c, 4, 4a S recognizes that the second predator is a type of environmental change that causes a trait that had been adaptive to be maladaptive; natural selection would happen more quickly in this simulation, because more prey would die during each round.

It's a skill that I had early on that must have been adaptive.

The Gormans, too, argue that ways of thinking that now seem self-destructive must at some point have been adaptive.

Their simplicity has been adaptive, and sponges have remained important in benthic marine habitats since their origin.

Re "A Critic Takes On the Logic of Female Orgasm" (May 17): Although I'm not a biologist, I propose a common-sense theory that explains why female orgasm has been adaptive in our species.

More than that, it is often beneficial for humans to work together with other humans, which means that it would have been adaptive to evaluate the niceness and nastiness of other individuals.

It is possible that traits may have been adaptive at some point but no longer are today.

Our results suggest that subtle changes in L-cone opsin wavelength absorption may have been adaptive during human evolution.

Certainly, one can propose that natural selection is responsible for any changes that show evidence of having been adaptive, but change through time (evolution as fact or path) does not, by itself, evince any particular mechanism (evolution as theory).