The global temperature fluctuates which causes changes in the environment. The environment changes all the time. Organisms have to either adjust to the changes or die out. This adjustment is called adaption. What is adaptation, what are the different kinds of adaptation, and what is phenotypic plasticity?
When a line of creatures, over generations, change their genes so that they have a better chance of surviving in their environment and reproducing, the creatures are adapting. Evolution is the term for when so many adaptations have taken place that the creature that began the cycle is so different from its progeny that it would be incapable of reproducing with it (Wilreker, 2). The definition of adaptation is “a shift in gene frequencies as a consequence of natural selection” (Wilreker, 2). When speaking of a specific change in a creature, it would be called and adaptation (Wilreker, 2). There are several mechanisms for adaptation (Wilreker, 3). One mechanism is natural selection (Wilreker,3-6). Natural selection is the idea that, in nature, some members of a species are better suited to surviving in their environment than others (Wilreker, 4-6). The creatures may have some gene that helps make even a small change in them that makes them more likely to survive. Since they were able to outperform others of their species in some way, and thus survive when others may have died, they are able to pass on their genes to the next generation (Wilreker, 4-6). If the offspring with this new trait are also successful, then they too will pass down the gene, while the offspring without the trait that helps the animals to survive will eventually be killed off and their genes will be removed from the gene pool over the course of generations ...
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... adaptation (Wilreker, 11-14). When it gets hot, a dog may shed some of its fur, and when it is colder the dog’s fur may get thicker. This is phenotypic plasticity, the dog is changing the expression of its genes without changing the actual genes and this makes it biological adaptation.
Adaptation is when an organism, over generations, has changed its genes to comply with the demands of the environment. The two types of adaptation are cultural and biological (Wilreker, 13-14). Phenotypic plasticity is how flexible the phenotype of a creature is without changing its genes (Wilreker, 11). Adaptation, in all its myriad of forms is an indispensible part of evolution.
Works Cited
Scarre, Chris. The Human Past. 2nd Edition. London: Thames and Hudson LTD, 2009. Print.
Wilreker, Benjamin. Adaptation, Primatology, & Human Ancestors. N/A: N/A, N/A. Power Point. Web.
An adaptation is the characteristic of an organism that makes it likely to survive. There are three types of adaptations: structural, physiological, and behavioural. Structural adaptations are physical features, physiological adaptations are related to the internal body functions, while behavioural adaptations refer to how organisms respond to stimuli (Beavis 2014). This paper will discuss some adaptations that help koalas and eucalyptus trees survive in their environments.
Biological evolution is a change in the characteristics of living organisms over generations (Scott, 2017). A basic mechanism of evolution, the genetic drift, and mutation is natural selection. According to Darwin's theory of evolution, natural selection is a process in nature in which only the organisms best adapted to their environmental surroundings have a higher chance of surviving and transmitting their genetic characters in increasing numbers to succeeding generations while those less adapted tend to be eliminated. There has been many experimental research projects that relate to the topic of natural selection and evolution.
Natural selection is associated with the phrase “survival of the fittest.” This basically means that the fittest individuals can not only survive, but are also able to leave the most offspring. The selection of phenotypes affects the genotypes. For example, if tall pea plants are favored in the environment, then the tall pea plants would leave more offspring behind, meaning that the offspring will carry tall alleles. Phenotypes that are successful have the best adaptations (characteristics that help an individual to survive and reproduce) to their environment. These adaptation arise from the interactions with living and nonliving aspects of the environment. Some nonliving aspects of the environment are climate, water availability, and concentration of mineral sin the
Evolution in general, is a hard concept to grasp. There are multiple factors that effect the outcome a species, for example: genetics, nurture, nature, and the environment all play an important role. It was once said that species do not survive due to the fact that they are the strongest or the most intelligent, but because that species is the most responsive to change.
What is evolution and how does it work? Evolution is the theory of how one form of life changes into another form. Evolution also is the change of a population’s inherited traits from generation to generation. Evolution helps to explain why an animal, human, and plant looks the way it does and acts the way it does; it gives an explanation of the history of life. Genes come in many varieties and the evolution helps to make it happen. Mutation, natural selection, genetic drift, and gene flow: the four forces that make the evolution work.
The simplest definition of adaptation sees it as the process by which an organism that adjusts to the environment, both in physical and mental conditions. It is a dynamic process of mutual influence in the ultimate goal of maintaining life in changing circumstances. However, adaptation does not refer only to organisms, but also to the organization to which we can apply the rules of living systems because they are not just material goods but rather the people.
Biological evolution is the change in the inherited and genetic characteristics of a species. Much of what makes us human is our physical appearance and biological adaptations. Human ancestry originates in primates and over time, we have physically evolved a great deal in order to become the modern humans that we are today. Humans have larger brain sizes, longer legs, and are habitually bipedal all of which biologically separate humans from other animals and create the human identity.
A biologist, known as Piaget was interested in how an organism adapted to their environment, especially behavior adaptation to the environment. Piaget hypothesized that infants are born with schemes operating at birth that he called "reflexes." However, in human beings an infant uses these reflexes to adapt to the environment, these reflexes are quickly replaced with constructed schemes. Piaget described two processes used by the individual in its at...
...generations. If it is a beneficial mutation, then it will likely not only pass on through reproduction, but those offspring will have better odds of reproducing in order to “spread” that trait onto future offspring. This is the process of natural selection. If there are enough changes or the change is drastic enough, a new species can evolve. So, evolution comes about as a result of changes to DNA and some of those changes to DNA can come from external factors such as environment, climate, and culture.
According to Darwin and his theory on evolution, organisms are presented with nature’s challenge of environmental change. Those that possess the characteristics of adapting to such challenges are successful in leaving their genes behind and ensuring that their lineage will continue. It is natural selection, where nature can perform tiny to mass sporadic experiments on its organisms, and the results can be interesting from extinction to significant changes within a species.
Many scientists in the past, such as Aristotle and Plato, believed that there were no changes in populations; however, other scientists, such as Darwin and Wallace, arose and argued that species inherit heritable traits from common ancestors and environmental forces drives out certain heritable traits that makes the species better suited to survive or be more “fit” for that environment. Therefore, species do change over a period of time and they were able to support their theory by showing that evolution does occur. There were four basic mechanisms of evolution in their theory: mutation, migration, genetic drift, and natural selection. Natural selection is the gradual process by which heritable traits that makes it more likely for an organism to survive and successfully reproduce increases, whereas there is a decline in those who do have those beneficial heritable traits (Natural Selection). For example, there is a decrease in rain which causes a drought in the finches’ environment. The seeds in the finches’ environment would not be soft enough for the smaller and weaker beak finches to break; therefore, they cannot compete with the larger and stronger beak finches for food. The larger and stronger beak finches has a heritable trait that helps them survive and reproduce better than others for that particular environment which makes them categorized under natural selection (Freeman, 2002).
It is important to notice that the opening chapter acts essentially as an introduction to a wider discussion throughout his book. In an effort to give his exploration some order and consistency, Bluestone organizes his discussion under five sections. He identifies five main points, which composes the process of adaptation. Despite these efforts to contain each discussion under such headings, Bluestone’s discussion goes off track during his analysis, which only makes the laws that govern adaptation harder to underst...
Darwin writes on how a species will adapt to its environment given enough time. When an animal gains a genetic edge over its competitors, be they of the same species or of another genus altogether, the animal has increased its chance of either procreation or adaptation. When this animal has this beneficial variance, the advantage becomes his and because of this, the trait is then passed on to the animals offspring.
Thousands of species have become extinct over the last four decades as a result of changes in land use and as a result of global warming. Whether or not the millions of species can adapt and evolve to climate changes is debatable. As this brief overview will report, the human species is not adapting well to the changes. It must be remembered that increases in the levels of carbon dioxide are certainly responsible for the risk many species face, but so is the way land is used, e.g., rain forest destruction. There is a feedback loop wherein plant life and the climate are interdependent. Each affects the other. When forests are cut down, temperatures in that area will rise. Rising temperatures cause other plant life requiring cooler temperatures To die off.
The next type of adaptation is also genetic, but does not involve the changing of the genes themselves, but rather how they are expressed. Because humans possess a remarkable amount of ‘genetic plasticity’, developmental adjustments can occur by turning particular genes on or off to adapt to the current environmental conditions at birth and through adolescence.