Ontogenetic Adaptation: Implications for the Study of Development and the Role of Developmental Systems in Evolution

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Owings, Donald H.

Affiliations: University of California, Davis, USA

Note: [] Address for correspondence: Donald H. Owings, Department of Psychology, University of California, One Shields Ave., Davis, CA, USA 95616-8686

Abstract: Gilbert Gottlieb's data and epigenetic approach support the conclusion that organisms are functionally-whole agents at each phase of development rather than simply incompletely developed adults prior to sexual maturity and deteriorated adults in old age. This implies that organisms construct distinct ontogenetic niches at each phase of development, and so behave differently because they are differently adapted and not simply progressing toward or declining from their “prime.” This concept of ontogenetic adaptation has stimulated a number of insights about how the behavior of juveniles is appropriate for their phase-specific circumstances. But it also raises the challenge of discovering how organisms navigate through the disregulation of transitions between developmental phases. The idea also has important implications for the role of developmental systems in evolution. Distinct, equally-adapted phenotypes associated with different phases of ontogeny are potential alternative adult phe-notypes. The phenomenon of neoteny, for example, illustrates this point.

Keywords: ontogenetic adaptation, evolution, ontogeny, heterochrony, neoteny

DOI: 10.3233/DEV-2007-1306

Journal: International Journal of Developmental Science, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 239-242, 2007