Tool-Use, Dialectical Materialism, Adaptation

Marx' concept of the Organism-Environment relation as one of Dialectical Materialism can be classified as Ecological.  However, one shortcoming of that system is that it is too general to explain one of his cardinal insights--the distinctiveness of the human use of tools.  In contrast, that uniqueness can be better specified in terms of the concept of Adaptation.  For, the Ecological concept of the Organism-Environment relation is bi-lateral, entailing a distinction that can drawn within the concept of Adaptation that does not correspond to one within Dialectical Materialism--that between Adaptation-To and Adaptation-Of.  Now, most vital Ecological functions consist in a balanced combination of the two, e. g. breathing requires an organ such as a lung that is adapted to the air in an environment, from which it adapts needed oxygen.  But tool-use is an adaptation, by an organism, primarily of something in its environment, even the simple stick of Marx-Engels' example of Human uniqueness in the German Ideology.  Likewise, the increasing elaborateness of manufacturing processes in Human society signifies the extent of the Adaptation-Of that, as they propose, is the distinguishing characteristic of the Species.  Furthermore, insofar as that characteristic can be formulated in terms of superiority of complexity of function, its emergence is of Evolutionist significance, i. e. that a such a preponderance of Adaptation-Of is an expression of Evolutionary superiority.  So, Evolutionist concepts are more instructive than are the resources of Dialectical Materialism for explaining one of Marx-Engels' important theses.