Adaptation and Survival

An adaptation is any heritable trait that helps an organism, such as a plant or animal, survive and
reproduce in its environment.

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Koalas Climb a Eucalyptus Tree

A koala hugs a tree while her baby clings to her back at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary
near Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. Koalas have adapted to only eat the leaves of
eucalyptus trees. Eucalyptus are very low in protein and toxic to many animal species.
Being able to digest eucalyptus leaves is an adaptation that benefits the koala by
providing it a food source for which there is little competition.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ANNE KEISER

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ARTICLE VOCABULARY
Thursday, April 23, 2020

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Any number of characteristics can vary among individuals of a given species — some
may be larger, hairier, fight off infections better, or have smaller ears. These
characteristics are largely determined by their genes, which are passed down from their
parents and subsequently passed down to their own offspring. Some of these
characteristics, or traits, provide competitive advantages like speed, strength, or
attractiveness. If those traits are particularly helpful, individuals with those traits will
produce more offspring than those without. Over generations, the number of individuals
with that advantageous trait, or adaptation, will increase until it becomes a general
attribute of the species.

Structural and Behavioral Adaptations

An adaptation can be structural, meaning it is a physical part of the organism. An

adaptation can also be behavioral, affecting the way an organism responds to
its environment.

An example of a structural adaptation is the way some plants have adapted to life in dry,
hot deserts. Plants called succulents have adapted to this climate by storing water in
their short, thick stems and leaves.

Seasonal migration is an example of a behavioral adaptation. Gray whales (Eschrichtius

robustus) migrate thousands of kilometers every year as they swim from the
cold Arctic Ocean in summer to the warm waters off the coast of Mexico to winter. Grey
whale calves are born in the warm southern water, and then travel in groups called pods
to the nutrient-rich waters of the Arctic.

Adaptations that develop in response to one challenge sometimes help with or become
co-opted for another. Feathers were probably first adaptations for tactile sense or
regulating temperature. Later, feathers became longer and stiffer, allowing for gliding
and then for flight. Such traits are called exaptations.

Some traits, on the other hand, lose their function when other adaptations become more
important or when the environment changes. Evidence of these traits remain in
a vestigial form — reduced or functionless. Whales and dolphins have vestigial leg
bones, the remains of an adaptation (legs) that their ancestors used to walk.

Habitat

Adaptations often develop in response to a change in the organisms’ habitat.

A famous example of an animal adapting to a change in its environment is England's

peppered moth (Biston betularia). Prior to the 19th century, the most common type of
this moth was cream-colored with darker spots. Few peppered moths were gray or
black.

As the Industrial Revolution changed the environment, the appearance of the peppered
moth changed. The darker-colored moths, which were rare, began to thrive in
the urban atmosphere. Their sooty color blended in with the trees, which were stained
by industrial pollution. Birds couldn’t see the dark moths as well, so they ate the cream-
colored moths instead. The cream-colored moths began to make a comeback after the
United Kingdom passed laws that limited air pollution.

Speciation

Sometimes, an adaptation or set of adaptations develops that splits one species into
two. This process is known as speciation.

Marsupials in Oceania are an example of adaptive radiation, a type of speciation in

which species develop to fill a variety of empty ecological niches. Marsupials, mammals
that carry their developing young in pouches after a short pregnancy, arrived in Oceania
before the land split from Asia. Placental mammals, animals that carry their young to
term in the mother’s womb, came to dominate every other continent, but not Oceania.
Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus), for instance, adapted to feed on eucalyptus trees,
which are native to Australia. The extinct Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus)
was a carnivorous marsupial and adapted to the niche filled by big cats, like tigers, on
other continents.

The cichlid fish found in many of Africa’s lakes exhibit another type of
speciation, sympatric speciation. Sympatric speciation is the opposite of
physical isolation. It happens when species share the same habitat. Adaptations have
allowed hundreds of varieties of cichlids to live in Lake Malawi. Each species of cichlid
has a unique, specialized diet: One type of cichlid may eat only insects, another may
eat only algae, another may feed only on other fish.

Coadaptation

Organisms sometimes adapt with and to other organisms. This is called coadaptation.
Certain flowers produce nectar to appeal to hummingbirds. Hummingbirds, in turn, have
adapted long, thin beaks to extract the nectar from certain flowers. When
a hummingbird goes to feed, it inadvertently picks up pollen from the anthers of the
flowers, which is deposited on the stigma of the next flowers it visits. In this relationship,
the hummingbird gets food, while the plant’s pollen is distributed. The coadaptation is
beneficial to both organisms.

Mimicry is another type of coadaptation. In mimicry, one organism has adapted

to resemble another. The harmless king snake (sometimes called a milk snake) has
adapted a color pattern that resembles the deadly coral snake. This mimicry keeps
predators away from the king snake.

The mimic octopus (Thaumoctopus mimicus) has behavioral as well as structural

adaptations. This species of octopus can copy the look and movements of other
animals, such as sea snakes, flatfish, jellyfish, and shrimp.

Coadaptation can also limit an organism’s ability to adapt to new changes in their
habitat. This can lead to co-extinction. In southern England, the large blue butterfly
adapted to eat red ants. When human development reduced the red ants’ habitat, the
local extinction of the red ant led to the local extinction of the large blue butterfly.