How do population change through adaptation, variation, and mutations?
Adaptation means that many individuals already have some body structure or life habit by which they can survive in a changing environment. It may not be their normal thing to do but they “learn” to survive because they already have some advantage. Variation means that in any given population there are differences between individual organisms. They are not all exactly the same. Mutation means that the genes of a parent organism have changed through some mutagenic process (chemical, biological, radiological) and this change will subsequently be passed on to future generations. Most mutations are not beneficial and the individual will die before being able to pass on the change to any future generations. SOME mutations turn out to be good. As an environment changes – and they do – those individuals that are pre-adapted to the change via natural variation will survive and pass their particular genetics on to their offspring. If a mutation arises that is beneficial in the changed environmen
