Adaptation
A trait
that aids the survival of an individual or a species in a given
environment. An adaptation may be a structural characteristic such
as the hump of a camel, a behavioral characteristic such as the
mating call of a bull frog, or a physiological characteristic
controlling some inner workings of tissue cells. Adaptations permit
the survival of species in environments that sometimes seem
forbidding. For example, some bacteria are able to live in hot
springs that have temperatures up to 80 degrees C (175 degrees F).
They have adaptations that permit the carrying out of metabolic
functions at extremely
high temperatures.
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