Chapter 7 - Adaptation to Changed Conditions of Living and Evolution

Abstract

Living systems respond to changed conditions by adaptively modifying behavioral, physiological, morphological, and life history characters. Being the most plastic of all the phenotypic characters, behavior is the first to adaptively respond to the changed environment. Behaviors are innate or learned; innate behaviors can be modified by learning and learned behaviors can evolve into innate behaviors. Animal behavior is determined by neural mechanisms, essentially related to the activity of specific neural circuits. The frequently observed correlation between the appearance of adaptive behaviors and specific changes in morphology suggests that a causal relationship may exist between neural circuits determining the animal behavior and those determining adaptive changes in morphology. This may be of paramount importance for the evolution of animals.