Imprint Enabled Evolution

Imprinting is a pervasive phenomenon across vertebrate taxa, yet it is traditionally analyzed as an ontogenetic adaptation benefiting the individual organism. This article proposes the hypothesis of Imprint Enabled Evolution: the mechanism by which imprinting decouples nervous system recognition from fixed ancestral forms, allowing evolution to proceed in relation to abstract object types (e.g., mother, offspring, mate). We formalise species social acceptance as a function of "difference penalties" (social costs imposed on novel perceptual morphs) and demonstrate that in non-imprinting lineages, beneficial trait mutations are stifled by a coordination problem, as they require simultaneous recognition mutations to avoid rejection. Using an algebraic model, we demonstrate that imprinting systematically lowers the ecological advantage threshold required for new morphs to reach fixation. By resetting recognition templates to match phenotypic variation encountered during sensitive windows, imprinting prevents conservative recognition rules from culling evolutionary innovation. Finally, we synthesize comparative ethological evidence, from the filial bond in geese to olfactory homing in salmon, to argue that imprinting is a deeply conserved, lineage-level adaptation. We conclude that this type-centered learning program expands the region of phenotypic space available to natural selection, thereby facilitating morphological and social diversification.