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adaptation
Sunday 8 May 2005
| WKP |
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings.
Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process that fits a population of 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 or adaptive trait, with a functional role in each individual organism, that is maintained and has been evolved by natural selection.
Organisms face a succession of environmental challenges as they grow, and show adaptive plasticity as traits develop in response to the imposed conditions. This gives them resilience to varying environments.
See also
function
Paywall References
Orr HA. The genetic theory of adaptation: a brief history. Nat Rev Genet. 2005 Feb;6(2):119-27. PMID: 15716908