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atavism
atavism Atavism is a reversion to an earlier or more primitive ancestral type, shown when traits from distant forebears reappear through heredity after not being present in the immediate line.
Atavism is a reversion to an earlier or more primitive ancestral type, shown when traits from distant forebears reappear through heredity after not being present in the immediate line. The term was also used historically for traits reemerging in an individual or group from earlier ancestral mixing, though such cases were noted as not always easy to separate from ordinary variation or environmental effects.