adaptation

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. Thirdly, it is a phenotypic trait or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has evolved through natural selection.

AI overview

Adaptation is the evolutionary process through which organisms develop traits that help them survive and reproduce in their environment, as well as the physical or behavioral characteristics themselves that result from this process. It matters because it explains how living things become suited to their surroundings and how populations change over time through natural selection.

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equivalent class: purl.org/ontology/wo/Adaptation

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~30 min read

Article

23 sections

Contents

History
General principles
What adaptation is
What adaptation is not
Adaptedness and fitness
Types
Changes in habitat
Genetic change
Co-adaptation
Mimicry
Trade-offs
Examples
Shifts in function
Pre-adaptation
Co-option of existing traits: exaptation
Niche construction
Non-adaptive traits
Extinction and coextinction
Origin of adaptive capacities
Philosophical issues
See also
References
Sources

Historically, adaptation has been described from the time of the ancient Greek philosophers such as Empedocles and Aristotle. In 18th and 19th-century natural theology, adaptation was taken as evidence for the existence of a deity. Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace proposed instead that it was explained by natural selection.