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Encyclopedia > Biological adaptation
The eye is an adaptation.
The eye is an adaptation.

A biological adaptation is an anatomical structure, physiological process or behavioral trait of an organism that has evolved over a period of time by the process of natural selection such that it increases the expected long-term reproductive success of the organism. Image:Menschliches auge. ... Image:Menschliches auge. ... Main articles: Life The most salient example of biological universality is that all living things share a common carbon-based biochemistry and in particular pass on their characteristics via genetic material, which is based on nucleic acids such as DNA and which uses a common genetic code with only minor... A phylogenetic tree of all living things, based on rRNA gene data, showing the separation of the three domains, bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes, as described initially by Carl Woese. ... Natural selection is a process by which biological variants within a population get to reproduce more or less relative to other variants in the same population because they happen to perform/function better or worse than the other variants. ...


Adaptation can be viewed as taking place over geological time, or within the lifetime of one individual or a group.


Organisms that are adapted to their environment are able to:

  • get air, water, food and nutrients
  • cope with physical conditions such as temperature, light and heat
  • defend themselves from their natural enemies
  • reproduce
  • respond to changes around them

Adaptions are the way living organisms cope with environmental stresses and pressures. One common form of physical Adaptation involves acclimatization. Acclimatization allows the organism to be able to exist in its new environment. Adaptation can be structural or behavioural too. Structural adaptations are special body parts of an organism that help it to survive in its natural habitat, for example, its skin colour, shape and body covering. Behavioural adaptations are special ways a particular organism behaves to survive in its natural habitat. Organisms that are not suitably adapted to their environment will either have to move out of the habitat or die out. Two alpinists Acclimatization, uh kly muh tuh ZAY shuhn, is the way in which an organism adjusts to changes in its environment (surroundings). ...


It is possible for an adaptation to be poorly selected or become less appropriate or even become on balance more of a dysfunction than a positive adaptation over time; this is known as maladaptation and can apply to both humans and animals in such fields as biology, psychology (where it applies to behaviors and other learned survival mechanisms) and other fields. Maladaptation is an adaptation that is (or has become) less helpful than harmful. ... Phyla Porifera (sponges) Ctenophora (comb jellies) Cnidaria Placozoa Subregnum Bilateria  Acoelomorpha  Orthonectida  Rhombozoa  Myxozoa  Superphylum Deuterostomia     Chordata (vertebrates, etc. ... Main articles: Life The most salient example of biological universality is that all living things share a common carbon-based biochemistry and in particular pass on their characteristics via genetic material, which is based on nucleic acids such as DNA and which uses a common genetic code with only minor... Psychology (Classical Greek: psyche = soul or mind, logos = study of) is an academic and applied field involving the study of behavior and its relationship to the mind and brain. ...


There is a great difference between adaptation and acclimation. Adaptation occurs over many generations; it is a slow process caused by Natural Selection. Acclimation occurs generally in a single lifetime and copes with issues that are less threatening. For example, if a human was to move to a higher altitude, respiration and physical exertion would become a problem, but after spending a duration of time in high altitude conditions one will soon acclimate to the pressure and function and no longer notice the change. Acclimation is a change occurring in an individual as a result to prolonged exposure of a particular environmental condition, such as a horse shedding its winter coat to produce a lighter summer coat. ...


See also


  Results from FactBites:
 
Adaptation - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (333 words)
A biological adaptation is an anatomical structure, physiological process or behavioral trait of an organism that has evolved over a period of time by the process of natural selection such that it increases the expected long-term reproductive success of the organism.
Adaptation can be viewed as taking place over geological time, or within the lifetime of one individual or a group.
Structural adaptations are special body parts of an organism that help it to survive in its natural habitat, for example, its skin colour, shape and body covering.
Exaptation - definition of Exaptation in Encyclopedia (532 words)
In addition, the biological function of an exaptation was not an earlier function performed while the adaptation evolved under earlier pressures of natural selection.
One problem that had been troubling Darwinian evolution was the question of how complex structures could evolve gradually if their earlier incarnations would not have a survival advantage.
Organisms with such an adaptation would thus be fitter than those without, leading to the spread of this trait.
  More results at FactBites »


 
 

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