Are All of Our Traits Evolutionary Adaptations?

Natural selection says only the fit will surprise. The fit are those that have the inherited traits that help them best adapt to their habitat so that they live long enough to have and raise their offspring. Does this mean all of the inheritable traits of organisms ultimately serve one purpose: improve the adaptation of the organisms to their environments?

Evolutionary Adaptations

All species have such immense potential fertility that their population size would increase exponentially if all live-born individuals were to go on to successfully reproduce. However, populations of species tend to remain stable in size, except for seasonal fluctuations.

Not all individuals born go on to reproduce successfully because there is a continuous struggle for existence among individuals of species. This struggle is not only against environmental conditions, and other species but also against each other for food, and shelter.

Individuals of a species that have developed favorable traits to help them with their struggle for survival are more likely to survive long enough to pass on their genes, and as a result, over the generations the species become more and more adapted to its habitat.

In his 1859 book “On the Origin of Species”, Charles Darwin called the mechanism that gradually changes the characteristics of species and makes the species more adaptable to their environment as “natural selection”.