Adaptations

Introduction

Adaptation is a ubiquitous word that is often used in our day-to-day life. But when we talk of the meaning of adaptation concerning biology, one must understand the profound concept of the word. Here adaptation means the ability or the modification seen in an organism according to the surrounding or the forced situation, which ultimately makes the organism change its physical or behavioral patterns to adapt and keep on living in the given surroundings.

All living things adapt to their surroundings to get along with their surroundings. If not, the species is eliminated by nature. Most commonly, adaptation is the adaptation to the habitat. It is also seen in humans, and the pattern is very similar. Imagine a student leaving his home and joining a college where he will be staying in a hostel. The environment might be new, but the adaptation keeps things going for him/ her.

Types of Adaptations

There are various types of adaptation seen in organisms. The most frequently visited adaptations are seen mentioned below-

• Structural Adaptations

Structural adaptation is all about adapting to the surroundings with the change in the structural composition of the animal. The human body is specially structured to cohabit in a restricted environment, but you cannot expect such a body to face temperatures such as 50 degrees Celsius. When discussing structure adaptations, one can see them on the cellular level. The physical changes in the environment create such a biological adaptation in the cell. Camouflage is one of the best examples of structural transformation. Camouflage changes skin color via structural adaptation to blend in with the environment and protect from harmful predators. Such a technique is seen in chameleons. 

• Behavior Adaptation

They are usually seen in the behavior of the organism. The causes of such modifications and adaptations could be due to environmental change or could be for defensive and protective reasons. Stopping without any movement of the rabbit shows a great example of behavioral adaptation when he feels that someone is trying to hunt him down. An adaptation example is the act of a rabbit freezing at a place without showing any moment to distract the predator from him. It also sometimes makes the rabbit look dead, due to which no other predator will ever attack it. 

• Physiological Changes

Physiological adaptation is due to fundamental physical change around the organism. Due to finding a problem that makes the human body or the animal susceptible to any injury or pain, the cell automatically starts to get modified. If you want to consider an example, then always think about the extraordinary response or adaptation of the fishes when they travel from regular water to saline water. If the fish doesn’t go through specific physiological changes, osmosis will occur, and the fish will never increase its progeny. Application of such physiological changes and adaptations is essential. If such transformation doesn’t occur, there will be a lot of living organisms on the planet earth that would be affected. 

Theories of Adaptation

Along with their adaptation theory, Sir Charles Darwin gave numerous environmental factors and approaches for studying the evolution pattern. He mentioned that few organisms could adapt to the sudden changing involvement and survive accordingly while the others that didn’t adapt to nature were dead or eliminated.

According to his adaptation theory, nature works, and something known as natural selection. Only the species compatible with nature and could live according to the given surroundings would be selected by nature and is the preferred species that would live. The process of natural selection is all dependent on how the species reacts to the change in the environment. If the species is finding a complex and challenging transition, it most probably it would be the inferior species that is most favorable for elimination.

According to Darwin’s particular adaptation theory, three different changes occur when habitat gets changed.

• Tracking of habitat is a process in which an organism follows a particular habitat already inhabited by a similar species
• Extinction, if the species is unable to find such habitat and is not able to re-establish itself in the surroundings, will ultimately lead to death
• Change in genetic factors- According to whether the species  goes through a genetic change or not is better adapted to settle down with the environment

Conclusion

Adaptations are something significant for every living being on the earth, and without them, there is no concept of survival. So, here we covered all the essential factors related to adaptations, their types, and a few most asked queries regarding the topic.