Atavism
Reappearance of a genetic trait once thought extinct / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Atavism?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
In biology, an atavism is a modification of a biological structure whereby an ancestral genetic trait reappears after having been lost through evolutionary change in previous generations.[3] Atavisms can occur in several ways,[4] one of which is when genes for previously existing phenotypic features are preserved in DNA, and these become expressed through a mutation that either knocks out the dominant genes for the new traits or makes the old traits dominate the new one.[3] A number of traits can vary as a result of shortening of the fetal development of a trait (neoteny) or by prolongation of the same. In such a case, a shift in the time a trait is allowed to develop before it is fixed can bring forth an ancestral phenotype.[5] Atavisms are often seen as evidence of evolution.[6]
This article possibly contains original research. (May 2023) |
In social sciences, atavism is the tendency of reversion. For example, people in the modern era reverting to the ways of thinking and acting of a former time.
The word atavism is derived from the Latin atavus—a great-great-great-grandfather or, more generally, an ancestor.