Write short note on: Adaptive radiation

Explanation

It is an evolutionary process in which an ancestral stock give rise to a new species, adapted to new habitats and ways of life, suiting their need of survival. Example A typical pentadactyl limb observed in terrestrial mammal. It has been modified to perform different functions like running (cursorial), swimming (aquatic), flying (aerial), climbing (arboreal) and burrowing (fussorial). Thus, it can be said that all mammals have originated from an ancestral terrestrial mammal through adaptive modifications of the basic pentadactyl limb plan.