7.3 Adaptations
Notes
An adaptation is an inherited trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment.
- Structural adaptations: body parts, like a cactus's spines or a polar bear's thick fur.
- Behavioral adaptations: actions, like migration or hibernation.
- Camouflage helps organisms blend in; mimicry is when a harmless species looks like a harmful one.
- Individuals do not evolve during their lifetime. Populations evolve as helpful traits become more common.
- Antibiotic resistance is natural selection in action: resistant bacteria survive and multiply.
Practice
A patient stops taking antibiotics early, and the bacteria that survive are resistant. Why?
The antibiotic selected for bacteria that already carried resistance.
A harmless hoverfly has yellow and black stripes like a stinging wasp. This is:
Predators avoid it because it looks like a dangerous species.
Which statement about adaptation is correct?
Traits gained during life are not inherited; populations evolve over generations.
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