Project Sherlock

Paper

1979

The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian Paradigm: A Critique of the Adaptationist Programme

Stephen Jay Gould & Richard C. Lewontin

Warns that biologists routinely invent an adaptive story for any trait rather than testing whether it is a byproduct of development or architecture, like the spandrels forced by a dome on arches.

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FreeIntermediatelink checked 17 Sept 2026

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Not a difficulty warning — a route. These are in the library too.

Filed under Evolutionary Biology in Biology.