NEET BIOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -These traits are called adaptations. An adaptation is a trait that helps an organism survive and reproduce in its environment. Birds have beaks of different shapes and sizes that are adapted for picking up different kinds of food. Thus, beak shape is an adaptation.

Detailed explanation-2: -Bird beaks are textbook examples of ecological adaptation to diet, but their shapes are also controlled by genetic and developmental histories.

Detailed explanation-3: -Each species of bird has a beak adapted to the type of food they eat. For instance, birds that eat seeds and nuts have short, tough beaks that make it easy to crack through hard shells. Specially adapted beaks for each species make finding and eating food much easier.

Detailed explanation-4: -The observation that Galapagos finch species possessed different beak shapes to obtain different foods was central to the theory of evolution by natural selection, and it has been assumed that this form-function relationship holds true across all species of bird.

Detailed explanation-5: -In addition to adaptations for flight, birds have other adaptations for living in a wide variety of environments. The shapes of their legs, wings, claws, and beaks fit the kind of environment that the bird lives in. Wading birds like herons and cranes have long legs and toes.