AP BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -With new habitats available, some species will adapt to the new environments. Evolutionary processes act rapidly during these times. Many new species evolve to fill those available habitats. The process in which many new species evolve in a short period of time to fill available niches is called adaptive radiation.

Detailed explanation-2: -Adaptive radiation is the evolutionary divergence of members of a single ancestral line into a series of different niches or adaptive zones.

Detailed explanation-3: -Adaptive radiation is a rapid increase in the number of species with a common ancestor, characterized by great ecological and morphological diversity. The driving force behind it is the adaptation of organisms to new ecological contexts.

Detailed explanation-4: -After each extinction event, there appears to have been a distinct adaptive radiation of organisms to occupy the vacated habitats. A classic example of this is the prolific radiation of mammals after the extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous.

Detailed explanation-5: -Adaptive radiation is an evolutionary process that produces new species from a single, rapidly diversifying lineage. This process occurs due to natural selection. An example of adaptive radiation is Darwin finches, found in Galapagos Island.