Views on the Form-Function Correlation and Biological Design

Abstract

The linkage between form and function is a fascinating field for intellectual analysis and contemplation in natural sciences by naturalists, biologists, anatomists, as well as philosophers and theologians. In the early nineteenth century, creationists’ approaches (Cuvier-Paley) helped to install the idea of a form-function binomial that gained scientific status in the second half of that century when it was contextualized within the framework of evolution by natural selection. In the mid-twentieth century, W.J. Bock and G. von Wahlert settled the modern basis for the elucidation of adaptation based on morphology, function, environment, and their interconnections. The paleontologist Leonard Burton Radinsky made significant contributions to the development of form-function studies. Also, his posthumously published book The Evolution of Vertebrate Design (1987), inspired many young biologists to embrace form-function approaches. Radinsky emphasized the importance of looking for the behaviors or functions that are actually correlated with a particular anatomical form in living species, together with a biomechanical design analysis as looking at that anatomical structure from a biomechanical or engineering perspective. Field biology research and testing form-function correlation should be a prerequisite in adaptation research programs.