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In evolutionary biology, adaptive radiation is a process in which organisms diversify rapidly from an ancestral species into a multitude of new forms, particularly when a change in the environment makes new resources available, alters biotic interactions or opens new environmental niches.
Learn about adaptive radiation, the evolution of an animal or plant group into many specialized forms. See examples from mammals, marsupials, cichlids, and Galapagos finches.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
May 31, 2019 · Learn what adaptive radiation is and how it leads to speciation and biodiversity. Explore examples of adaptive radiation in marsupials, Darwin's finches and human skin color.
Although biologists have different standards for defining an adaptive radiation, it generally means an event in which a lineage rapidly diversifies, with the newly formed lineages evolving different adaptations. The rapid diversification of mammals shown here may constitute an adaptive radiation.
An adaptive radiation generally means an event in which a lineage rapidly diversifies, with the newly formed lineages evolving different adaptations. Different factors may trigger adaptive radiations, but each is a response to an opportunity.
This process of rapid divergence of multiple species from a single ancestral lineage is called adaptive radiation. adaptive radiation in Galapagos finches. Fourteen species of Galapagos finches that evolved from a common ancestor. The different shapes of their bills, suited to different diets and habitats, show the process of adaptive radiation.
Jan 1, 2022 · Adaptive radiation is a type of evolutionary process in which organisms show diversification in physical and anatomical structure from their ancestral species for better adaptations to the changing environment. Learn about the concept, the prerequisite ecological opportunity, and the classical examples of adaptive radiation in birds, lizards, fishes, and honeycreepers.
