Literary notes about adaptive (AI summary)
In literature, “adaptive” is frequently used to emphasize the ways in which organisms or characters adjust to their environments or circumstances. In scientific narratives, the term highlights modifications that enhance survival, such as the structural changes in woodpeckers [1] or the evolutionary shifts in coloration in caterpillars that mimic their surroundings [2]. It also appears in discussions of natural selection, contrasting inherited traits with those altered by environmental influence [3, 4]. Beyond strictly biological contexts, “adaptive” can describe the ingenuity of a character who quickly learns and modifies his environment to suit his needs [5], revealing the term’s versatility in both evolutionary theory and human behavior.
- Adaptive modifications in the woodpeckers.
— from Jaw Musculature of the Mourning and White-winged Doves by Robert L. Merz - Now in all known caterpillars brown colours are adaptive, sometimes causing a resemblance to the soil, and at others to dead leaves or branches.
— from Studies in the Theory of Descent (Volumes 1 and 2) by August Weismann - The real affinities of all organic beings, in contradistinction to their adaptive resemblances, are due to inheritance or community of descent.
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - We are least likely in the modifications of these organs to mistake a merely adaptive for an essential character."
— from The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection by Charles Darwin - He was quick to learn, very imitative and adaptive, and built himself a hovel rather better, it seemed to me, than their own shanties.
— from The island of Doctor Moreau by H. G. Wells
