![]() These structural modifications affect an animal at many different levels and such changes are highly visible adaptations, one can fully identify these changes with naked eyes.Įxample - How desert plants have adapted to the desert conditions where there is a very little amount of water available and the temperature is high. Structural adaptations are the changes to the structure of a living organism to adapt better to an environment. What are the Different Types of Adaptations?Īdaptations could be of various types: 1. Nature selected the most suitable beak against the less useful ones. Any unfavourable variation selects out against their presence, conferring a selective disadvantage on that organism.Įxample - Different species of finches existed on Galapagos island, the variation among them was in their beak characteristics. In the struggle for existence, some individuals show variable variations that have a reproductive advantage and produce more offspring than other species. In a population, some individuals have the traits which could be structural or behavioural that make them better at surviving and reproducing. ![]() There is competition among the species of that area to fight for the available resources. In an area, the resources are fixed or limited. Natural selection is the process in which individuals with survival advantages will survive in an environment and those with less advantageous traits will die due to the pressure from the environment. ![]() ![]() This gene continues to be inherited generation after generation. This bird is, therefore, able to survive better and breed more. Certain mutations are harmful to human beings while certain mutations could be advantageous to the survival of an organism in the struggle for existence.Įxample - A bird is born with a long beak and this helps it capture food and therefore survive better. Mutation will arise due to any change in the nucleotide sequence of DNA and if a single pair of nucleotides is replaced. Mutation is the sudden genetic change which could be accidental or random. With time their necks also grew longer, and their shells became round and these adaptations were passed on to generations for the turtles living on that island.Īdaptation could occur due to mutation or natural selection. When these turtles migrated to another island, where the food resources were at a height, turtles with longer legs were able to eat and survive and reproduce. The turtles in one island ate from the lower ground due to which they had shorter legs and straight shells. Genetic Change: Genetic change is natural selection that allows the organism with slight mutations to survive better in an environment when compared to the other organisms in a given area.Įxample - Darwin observed the turtles living on two islands. Habitat Tracking: When an organism which used to live in the environment, finds another environment which is similar to the previous one to which it has inhabited before.Įxtinction: When species are not able to adapt to the new environment or move out and find a new environment to live in, they eventually die out and become extinct. Before Darwin, there were many other scientists such as Empedocles, Aristotle, William Paley, Lamarck and Buffon who accepted the fact that species change with time but did not understand the underlying cause for this change or that adaptation was a continuous process which does not have a final form.Īdaptation theory suggested that with habitat change, there are three other changes that take place: habitat tracking, genetic change, and extinction. The scientist who came up with his theory is Charles Darwin who conducted experiments in Galapagos island in the 1830s. A change in the structure and function of an organism that results from a natural process by which an organism is better fitted to survive and also multiply in an environment is called adaptation.Īdaptation theory is also referred to as the theory of survival of the fittest which is an organism’s ability to adapt to an environment and adjust with time.
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