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adaptation, in biology, the process by which a species becomes fitted to its environment; it is the result of natural selection ’s acting upon heritable variation over several generations. Organisms are adapted to their environments in a great variety of ways: in their structure, physiology, and genetics, in their locomotion or dispersal, in ...
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phylogenetic tree, a diagram showing the evolutionary...
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Oct 19, 2023 · Vocabulary. In evolutionary theory, adaptation is the biological mechanism by which organisms adjust to new environments or to changes in their current environment. Although scientists discussed adaptation prior to the 1800s, it was not until then that Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace developed the theory of natural selection.
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- Adaptation Definition
- Types of Adaptation
- Examples of Adaptation
- Quiz
An adaptation, or adaptive trait, is a feature produced by DNA or the interaction of the epigenome with the environment. While not all adaptations are totally positive, for an adaptation to persist in a population it must increase fitness or reproductive success. All offspring, whether formed sexually or asexually, inherit their traits from their p...
Genetic Mutation and Recombination
Deoxyribonucleic acid, or DNA, is the molecule that carries the information necessary for creating and maintaining life. DNA is made from a series of nucleotides, 4 small chemicals which chain together. The sequence of these chemicals can be read by specialized enzymesand organelles within cells to produce new proteins. These proteins have various functions, and determine how the cell functions within its environment. Since the first proteins and cellular constituents aggregated to form the f...
Changes in Environment
Changes in the environment are second major category of adaptation. In many cases the epigenome is as or more important that the DNA itself. Large environmental changes, such as a change in ocean temperature or acidity, can affect a great number of species. As the environment changes, the proteins of the organisms start to function differently. Changes to the DNA or to how the epigenome interacts with the new environment can lead to a novel adaptation. For instance, life on Earth currently de...
Rhinocerous Beetle
If you’ve ever seen a Rhinoceros Beetle, you’ve probably wondered what it uses those huge horns for. Seen below is a male Rhino Beetle, with its distinctive headgear. Like all arthropods, the beetle is divided into segments. These various sections are very responsive to adaptation. In the Rhino Beetle, the head section has developed these large thorns. The male beetles use these large obtrusions to fight each other, in competition for females. It is presumed that ancestral beetles had little...
Digestive Tract in Mammals
If you were to dissect various mammals, you would find something very peculiar in the size and composition of their digestive tract. Carnivores, like wolves and cats, have very short and simple digestive tracts. In fact, the more carnivorous an animal, the shorter and simpler the digestive tract is. Meat and animal products are easily digested. The adaptation of a short gut allows these animals to quickly process the energy out of their meaty meal, before it starts to rot in their gut. Herbiv...
1. A fox has a litter of 3 kits. 1 of the kits is randomly eaten by an eagle. Only 1 of the remaining kits learns how to successfully feed itself, the other starves to death. Which of the following could be considered an adaptation? A. The learning that allowed the survivor to feed itself B. Any genetic basis for the intelligence of the surviving f...
However, it is not clear what "relatively small" should mean, for example polyploidy in plants is a reasonably common large genetic change. The origin of eukaryotic endosymbiosis is a more dramatic example. All adaptations help organisms survive in their ecological niches. The adaptive traits may be structural, behavioral or physiological.
Oct 19, 2023 · Structural and Behavioral Adaptations. An adaptation can be structural, meaning it is a physical part of the organism. An adaptation can also be behavioral, affecting the way an organism responds to its environment. An example of a structural adaptation is the way some plants have adapted to life in dry, hot deserts.
Adaptation. An adaptation is a feature that arose and was favored by natural selection for its current function. Adaptations help an organism survive and/or reproduce in its current environment. Adaptations can take many forms: a behavior that allows better evasion of predators, a protein that functions better at body temperature, or an ...
Oct 19, 2023 · An adaptation is a mutation, or genetic change, that helps an organism, such as a plant or animal, survive in its environment. Due to the helpful nature of the mutation, it is passed down from one generation to the next. As more and more organisms inherit the mutation, the mutation becomes a typical part of the species.
