Maladaptation

In <a href="/facts/Evolution/Hj0qAaBk">evolution</a>, a maladaptation is a <a href="/facts/Phenotypic_trait/seYSUTul">trait</a> that is (or has become) more harmful than helpful, in contrast with an <a href="/facts/Adaptation/5K2gNpDB">adaptation</a>, which is more helpful than harmful. All organisms, from <a href="/facts/Bacteria/wC8xSCsU">bacteria</a> to <a href="/facts/Human/rlcTENsr">humans</a>, display maladaptive and adaptive traits. In <a href="/facts/Animal/4b8J33nd">animals</a> (including humans), <a href="/facts/Adaptive_behavior/FlETPXN7">adaptive behaviors</a> contrast with maladaptive ones. Like adaptation, maladaptation may be viewed as occurring over geological time, or within the lifetime of one individual or a group.
Maladaptation can arise when adaptations to environmental challenges have unintended harmful effects by either decreasing the current <a href="/facts/Fitness_(biology)/MYpAGGey">fitness</a> of the organism or creating new risks which may decrease survivability. This could be caused by changes in trait distribution from genetic loading, <a href="/facts/Exogeny/yHXbIsAa">exogenous</a> environmental changes in the fitness landscape, or feedback in eco-plasticity, altering the fitness landscape.
It can also signify an adaptation that, whilst reasonable at the time, has become less and less suitable and more of a problem or hindrance in its own right, as time goes on. This is because it is possible for an adaptation to be poorly selected or become more of a dysfunction than a positive adaptation, over time.

Maladaptation open-in-new

Maladaptation