The adherents of directed evolution claimed that adaptation to the environment was not the main driving force of evolution. Their opponents either denied instances of inadaptive evolution or insisted that adaptive changes were by far more numerous and therefore evolution in general was the creation of adapted organisms. Orthogeneticists objected that seemingly adaptive organs first evolved independently of the environment and then an organism put them to use. In this way, organisms adapted to their own structure. The phenomenon of senescence is a remarkable example of non-adaptive nature of characters.