Recognition of Morphological Adaptations in Animals: The Hypothetico-Deductive Method

Morphological features are interpreted as adaptive in an ad hoc manner; no consideration is given to their generation as engineering by-products (e.g., allometric relationships). A particular application of the hypothetico-deductive method is proposed; it requires rejection of the "null" hypothesis (engineering artifact) before considering "adaptationist" hypotheses. An example is given. (Accepted for publication 25 February 1981)

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