Question

What is adaptive radiation? Describe it with the help of a suitable example.

Hint:

Think of one ancestor species splitting into many, each fitted to a different food source or niche.

Answer 1

Step 1: Understanding the Concept:
When a single ancestral species reaches a new area with many different, unfilled habitats (or ecological niches), its descendants can spread out and adapt to those different niches over time.

Step 2: Define adaptive radiation.
Adaptive radiation is the process by which many new species evolve from a single common ancestor within a relatively short span of geological time, radiating outward from a central point of origin as they adapt to different available niches.

Step 3: Explain with the classic example.
Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands are the standard example: a single ancestral finch species reached the islands and, over time, gave rise to several different finch species, each with a beak shape suited to a different food source, such as seed-crushing beaks, insect-catching beaks, and cactus-feeding beaks.

Final Answer:
Adaptive radiation is the diversification of one ancestral species into many species adapted to different niches; Darwin's finches on the Galapagos Islands, each with a different beak shape, illustrate this clearly.