Monday, April 9, 2012

adaptation

An adaptation in biology is a trait with a current functional role in the life history of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection.

  •  An adaptation refers to both the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the adaptation.
  •  Adaptations contribute to the fitness and survival of individuals.
  •  Organisms face a succession of environmental challenges as they grow and develop and are equipped with an adaptive plasticity as the phenotype of traits develop in response to the imposed conditions.
  • The developmental norm of reaction for any given trait is essential to the concept of adaptation as it affords a kind of biological insurance or resilience to varying environments.

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