Adaptations

Every organism has features that help it survive in its particular environment. These features are called adaptations and they have developed through natural selection over many generations. For AQA GCSE Biology, you need to understand the three types of adaptation — structural, behavioural and functional — and be able to apply them to organisms from different habitats including deserts and arctic regions.

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What Is an Adaptation?

An adaptation is a feature of an organism that increases its chances of survival and reproduction in its environment. Adaptations arise through natural selection: organisms with advantageous features are more likely to survive, reproduce and pass on the alleles for those features to their offspring.

There are three main categories of adaptation:

Type	Definition	Example
Structural	A physical feature of the body that helps the organism survive	Thick fur on a polar bear for insulation
Behavioural	A way an organism behaves that helps it survive	Penguins huddling together to conserve heat
Functional	A process or chemical reaction within the organism that helps it survive	Desert rats producing very concentrated urine to conserve water