Why are some unicellular and multicellular organisms better adapted to a hostile environment?
Natural selection is the driving force for evolution, and the reason life is the way on this earth that it is. With all organisms, even those in the same species, there exists variation. It can be as physically different as skin color in humans, or as subtle as ability of a particular strain of bacteria to transfer its genes to another through the process of conjugation. It follows that from this variation, there exist “different” organisms that, when put under stress, such as that of a hostile environment, will react differently and have the ability react in different ways, sometimes to the extent of being able to survive. This gives rise to new populations of organisms, and extinction of those that cannot adapt.
