The Elements of Evolution (43) Adaptation

Adaptation

Adaptive evolution affects all species. ~ American evolutionary geneticist David Gresham

Repeated evolution can occur by reusing the same genetic mechanisms over and over again. ~ American evolutionary biologist Erica Bree Rosenblum

Evolution is commonly adaptive to environmental circumstance. Adaptation is initiative in reaction – a positive process for survival.

Adaptive radiation – the rapid evolution of ecological and phenotypic diversity within a clade – accounts for much of life’s diversity. ~ American evolutionary biologists Christopher Martin & Peter Wainwright

The evolutionary process is really fluid. ~ American paleoanthropologist Richard Potts

Organisms evolve for an array of reasons: to better exploit resources, to improve breeding odds, to optimize efficiency, or to overcome an onslaught otherwise from predation or poison. The desire to live drives evolution.

Biological evolution is an economic process in which the entities of life – all organizational units from genes to species – change through time according to the circumstances in which they live and which they helped to create. It is a process governed by opportunities, challenges, and limitations. Feedbacks between life and its environment effect evolution. ~ Geerat Vermeij