From the Latin verb coopto -as cooptare , choose and also admit . It was first used in the legal-political sphere to signify the action of electing and admitting new members of an agency from within the institution itself. In that direction points the etymology : co-optare , choose , choose in company . Biologists also use this verb to signal the use made by certain organisms or living beings of procedures or mechanisms for a purpose other than the original (adaptation). Although biologists in these cases use rather the term exaptation. They explain many adaptive changes in the evolutionary line.
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