Word.ws English Dictionary

evolutionary trap

evolutionary trap noun: the situation of an evolved behaviour or trait of a species becoming detrimental to the survival or reproductive ability of individuals, possibly leading to extinction.

Noun

evolutionary trap (plural evolutionary traps)

  1. (evolutionary theory) The situation of an evolved behaviour or trait of a species becoming detrimental to the survival or reproductive ability of individuals, possibly leading to extinction.
    • Antagonistic genetic correlations and maladaptive phenotypic responses (evolutionary traps) are probably the most important constrain[t]s to microevolutionary change.2004, Francisco Pulido, Peter Berthold, Microevolutionary Response to Climate Change, Anders P. Møller, W. Fielder, P. Berthold (editors), Advances in Ecological Research, Volume 35: Birds and...
    • Evolutionary traps can threaten populations and species if they result in widespread reductions in survival and reproduction.2010, Martin A. Schlaepfer, Paul W. Sherman, Michael C. Runge, “29: Decision Making, Environmental Change, and Population Persistence”, in David Westneat, Charles W. Fox, editors, Evolutionary...
  2. The situation of a rapid ecological change triggering decisions about choice of habitat that are detrimental for an individual; an ecological trap.
    Synonyms:
    ecological trap

Synonyms of evolutionary trap

  • ecological trap

Forms of evolutionary trap

pluralevolutionary traps

Questions about evolutionary trap

What does evolutionary trap mean?
Evolutionary trap means the situation of an evolved behaviour or trait of a species becoming detrimental to the survival or reproductive ability of individuals, possibly leading to extinction.
What part of speech is evolutionary trap?
Evolutionary trap is a noun.
What is the plural of evolutionary trap?
The plural of evolutionary trap is evolutionary traps.

Words near evolutionary trap in the dictionary

  1. evolutionary stable strategy
  2. evolutionary taxonomist
  3. evolutionary taxonomists
  4. evolutionary theories
  5. evolutionary theory
  6. evolutionary trap
  7. evolutionary traps
  8. evolutiondidit
  9. evolutionise
  10. evolutionism
  11. evolutionisms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: evolutionary trap (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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