THE NICHE CONSTRUCTION PERSPECTIVE: A CRITICAL APPRAISAL |
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Authors: | Thomas C Scott‐Phillips Kevin N Laland David M Shuker Thomas E Dickins Stuart A West |
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Institution: | 1. Department of Anthropology, Durham University, , Durham, DH1 3LE United Kingdom;2. School of Biology, University of St Andrews, , St Andrews, Fife KY16 9AJ, United Kingdom;3. Department of Psychology, Middlesex University, , London, United Kingdom;4. Centre for Philosophy of Natural and Social Science, London School of Economics, , London, United Kingdom;5. Department of Zoology, Oxford University, , Oxford, United Kingdom |
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Abstract: | Niche construction refers to the activities of organisms that bring about changes in their environments, many of which are evolutionarily and ecologically consequential. Advocates of niche construction theory (NCT) believe that standard evolutionary theory fails to recognize the full importance of niche construction, and consequently propose a novel view of evolution, in which niche construction and its legacy over time (ecological inheritance) are described as evolutionary processes, equivalent in importance to natural selection. Here, we subject NCT to critical evaluation, in the form of a collaboration between one prominent advocate of NCT, and a team of skeptics. We discuss whether niche construction is an evolutionary process, whether NCT obscures or clarifies how natural selection leads to organismal adaptation, and whether niche construction and natural selection are of equivalent explanatory importance. We also consider whether the literature that promotes NCT overstates the significance of niche construction, whether it is internally coherent, and whether it accurately portrays standard evolutionary theory. Our disagreements reflect a wider dispute within evolutionary theory over whether the neo‐Darwinian synthesis is in need of reformulation, as well as different usages of some key terms (e.g., evolutionary process). |
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Keywords: | Adaptation adaptationism evolution natural selection niche niche construction |
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