Evolvability in Biology

Evolvability is the key dispositional property describing a biological system's ability to evolve. Emerging in the 1990s, this concept unifies research across quantitative genetics, evo-devo, and macroevolution, challenging traditional evolutionary views. Core debates address its precise definition, measurement (often mean-scaled additive genetic variance), and how underlying factors like mutational robustness and modularity shape evolutionary potential across short and long timescales.