Directional Biases in Evolution

Meeting Description:  The aim of this workshop is to assess and evaluate current understanding of the processes that give phenotypic evolution directionality. Traditionally, only natural selection was granted a creative role in evolution. However, changing concepts of development, and of the interaction between organism and environment, are increasingly leading researchers to consider a broader range of processes as potentially imposing directionality on evolution, including the evolution of adaptations. Key foci for the workshop will be developmental bias, niche construction, and the role of plasticity in generating these biases. The workshop will be informed by key theoretical and experimental studies conducted within ecology, evolutionary and developmental biology, and paleobiology. Participants will contribute to an edited volume on this topic.