ADAPTATION

Extinction is the termination of a species lineage.

Adaptation is the ability of the organisms to respond to the changes in the environment. It
is the key factor for survival.
The causes of adaptation of species are the following: Natural processes and Man-made
activities.
Organisms should acquire new traits so they can cope with the changing environment.
There are three kinds of adaptation: structural, physiological and behavioral.
Structural adaptation involves changes in the morphology of the organism.
Example of structural adaptation are the following: (1) The sunflower has a root system
that let it absorb water and nutrients from the soil. (2) The wolf has its claws and sharp
teeth to tear down the prey. (3) The cactus has the presence of its thorns to avoid being
eaten by insatiable desert organisms. Just remember, in structural adaptation, the
organism uses the FORM of its body to find a way for it to survive.
Physiological Adaptation is any function which an organism exhibits as a direct response
to an environmental change.
Example of physiological adaptation are the following: (1) Human Beings, being
response to the warm environment, produces heat as a form of releasing the heat to the
outside, thus cooling its body. (2) As the environment develop advanced ways of finding
its food, the snake develops even more powerful venom to protect itself from prey and to
use it to catch prey. (3) The camel, having very little source of water in the desert,
through metabolic process, it changes its fats in their hump into water.
Behavioral adaptation is any activity that is instinctive or, which an organism has learned
or has conditioned of doing, for protection to the environmental change.
Examples of behavioral adaptation: (1) The goldfish, to protect itself from its predator,
plays dead so that when the predators see it, they will not mind eating or catching the
goldfish. (2) The pigeon and the sparrow, in other countries, migrate to other places
during winter season to look for a place with better climate. They travel in groups as they
seek more comfortable environment from them. Likewise, they come again to the place
when it is summer. That is now called as estivation.
Adaptive traits can be acquired through sexual reproduction, through the passing of genes
from parent to the offspring.
Through sexual reproduction, it introduces new traits that enable species to cope with the
changing environment.
Traits are carried by the genes of the parents. These genes combine and it is through this
combination that offspring the species with genetic variations are produced.
These offspring carry new traits which will be better equip the species to encounter
environmental changes, thus preventing species extinction.