Search results
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 variety of ways, such as in their structure, physiology, and genetics.
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.
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the population during that process.
1. : something that is adapted. a new adaptation of an old recipe. specifically : a composition rewritten into a new form. a screen adaptation of a novel. 2. : the act or process of adapting. a process undergoing adaptation. : the state of being adapted. adaptation to changing circumstances. 3. : adjustment to environmental conditions: such as. a.
Oct 19, 2023 · 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. Plants called succulents have adapted to this climate by storing water in their short, thick stems and leaves. Seasonal migration is an example of ...
In biology, adaptation is defined a heritable behavioral, morphological, or physiological trait that has evolved through the process of natural selection, and maintains or increases the fitness of an organism under a given set of environmental conditions. This concept is central to ecology: the study of adaptation is the study of the ...
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 anatomical feature that allows the organism to access a valuable new resource — all of these might be adaptations.
