BioelectricaAlterspan Labs
MJW
Person

Mary Jane West-Eberhard

Later authors cite it for the view that plasticity is an adaptive resource of organisms1. Others use it for the idea that new traits can arise first and gain their fitness role afterwards2.

In the library
1 work, named in 5 passages elsewhere
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18501875190019251950197520002025Rosciglione C, 20261Newman SA, 20192Levin M, 20233Watson RA, Mills R, Buckley CL…, 20164Watson RA, Mills R, Buckley CL…, 20165
01

Plasticity as adaptive resource

Rosciglione (2026) attributes to West-Eberhard the claim that plasticity is one of the main adaptive resources of living organisms. On this account it lets one genotype produce different phenotypes under variable conditions1. Rosciglione applies this to plants, which cannot leave a hostile environment and so must change themselves. He contrasts the limited set of environments usually studied there with the novel circumstances that evolution cannot foresee3.

02

Traits and selection

Newman (2019) cites the book, with Gould and Lewontin and Müller, for the point that a trait's role in fitness can come after the fact. He argues that such traits then need no elaborate adaptationist story to explain their existence2. Watson and colleagues (2016) cite it for two named principles, the coevolution of coexpressed traits and the rule of independent selection4.

03

Development and cooperation

Watson and colleagues (2016) also cite West-Eberhard, with Jablonka (1994), on a game-theoretic problem. In division of labour games, group welfare is highest with a mix of strategies. They say genetic assortment into homogeneous groups cannot solve this. A developmental process through which particles coordinate and adopt complementary roles is needed5.

SourcesEach quotation was checked word for word against the passage it opens.
  1. According to Mary Jane West-Eberhard, plasticity represents one of the main adaptive resources of living organisms, as it enables them to produce different phenotypes in response to variable conditionsRosciglione C, 2026 · Plant Behaviour, Adaptive Plasticity and Evolution: Reassessing the Debate on… · open at passage 9
  2. their roles in enhancing fitness will be “after-the-fact” (Gould and Lewontin, 1979; Müller, 1990; West-Eberhard, 2003) and thus do not require elaborate or farfetched adaptationist narrativesNewman SA, 2019 · Inherency of Form and Function in Animal Development and Evolution · open at passage 73
  3. well beyond the handful of possible environments usually studied in phenotypic plasticity and epigenetic controls (Fraebel et al. 2020; Santos et al. 2015; West-EberhardLevin M, 2023 · Bioelectric networks: the cognitive glue enabling evolutionary scaling from… · open at passage 45
  4. the principle of ‘coevolution of coexpressed traits’ and conversely ‘the rule of independent selection’ (West-Eberhard 2003).Watson RA, Mills R, Buckley CL, Kouvaris K, Jackson A…, 2016 · Evolutionary Connectionism: Algorithmic Principles Underlying the Evolution of… · open at passage 29
  5. some form of developmental process, through which particles may coordinate with one another to adopt complementary roles (West-Eberhard 2003; Jablonka 1994), is required to solve this type of dilemmaWatson RA, Mills R, Buckley CL, Kouvaris K, Jackson A…, 2016 · Evolutionary Connectionism: Algorithmic Principles Underlying the Evolution of… · open at passage 90
In the library1 work
Developmental Plasticity and EvolutionWest-Eberhard, M. J.
2003
Developmental Plasticity and Evolution
West-Eberhard, M. J.
2003 · described