Biological adaptation is the evolutionary process through which heritable traits that enhance an organism’s fitness become more prevalent in a population over generations under specific environmental conditions. It operates primarily via natural selection acting on genetic variation, including mutations, recombination, and gene flow, and is constrained by developmental, genetic, and phylogenetic factors. Adaptations can be morphological, physiological, or behavioral and are typically characterized by increased survival or reproductive success in a given niche. The process is dynamic and context-dependent, such that traits advantageous in one environment may be neutral or deleterious in another, contributing to diversification and speciation.
For decades, the basics of plant growth have been taught in grade school: Plants make their food out of water from the soil, light from the sun and carbon dioxide from the air in a process called photosynthesis. What gets ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 3, 2026
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39
Researchers have found that the size of the amygdala—a region of the brain involved in processing emotions—could be linked to social tolerance in macaque monkeys. Their research, published today in eLife, is described by ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 3, 2026
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Adaptation is essential for survival. Across species, it occurs over many generations through evolution and natural selection. Individual animals, however, can also adapt within their own lifetimes—through learning. For many ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 2, 2026
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Plants are fast-tracking their own evolution by "plugging in" genetic code stolen from their neighbors, according to new research that reveals the secret to their own successful genetic engineering. The study, led by Catherine ...
Evolution
Mar 2, 2026
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Their icy hunting grounds are rapidly shrinking, but polar bears in Norway's remote Svalbard archipelago have defied the odds by bulking up instead of wasting away, a study said Thursday.
Plants & Animals
Feb 28, 2026
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72
Anyone who has seen a hummingbird poking her beak deep into a trumpet creeper blossom, or a honeyeater using its brush-tipped tongue to extract nectar from eucalyptus flowers, has witnessed something that, from a human perspective, ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2026
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49
Humans differ from other primates due to their relatively large, permanent breasts, and their development has so far not been conclusively explained. According to a study conducted at the University of Oulu, Finland, the ...
Evolution
Feb 25, 2026
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50
As you read this, the screen is probably flashing over 240 times per second, yet, as a human, you won't notice this flickering light. However, to a fruit fly hovering above your head, the screen would represent a strobe light ...
Evolution
Feb 24, 2026
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85
How do plants adapt to drought and heat? New studies on plants of the Canary Islands show that adaptation is not determined by a single character but by the interaction of entire sets of characters. Even closely related plants ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 24, 2026
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14
Animals don't just see the world differently from one another, they experience time itself at dramatically different speeds. That is according to a new study that considered 237 species across the animal kingdom, and which ...
Evolution
Feb 24, 2026
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