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An acquired characteristic is a non-heritable change in a function or structure of a living organism caused after birth by disease, injury, accident, deliberate modification, variation, repeated use, disuse, misuse, or other environmental influence.
It is a necessary condition that an object has four sides if it is true that it is a square; conversely, the object being a square is a sufficient condition for it to be true that an object has four sides. [4] Four distinct combinations of necessity and sufficiency are possible for a relationship of two conditions. A first condition may be:
Examples include searching for food, mating, and vocalizations. Physiological adaptations permit the organism to perform special functions such as making venom , secreting slime , and phototropism , but also involve more general functions such as growth and development , temperature regulation , ionic balance and other aspects of homeostasis .
Also called functionalism. The Darwinian view that many or most physiological and behavioral traits of organisms are adaptations that have evolved for specific functions or for specific reasons (as opposed to being byproducts of the evolution of other traits, consequences of biological constraints, or the result of random variation). adaptive radiation The simultaneous or near-simultaneous ...
Among the criteria that have been proposed for being an organism are: autonomous reproduction, growth, and metabolism [7] noncompartmentability – structure cannot be divided without losing functionality. [6] Richard Dawkins stated this as "the quality of being sufficiently heterogeneous in form to be rendered non-functional if cut in half". [8]
This glossary of biology terms is a list of definitions of fundamental terms and concepts used in biology, the study of life and of living organisms.It is intended as introductory material for novices; for more specific and technical definitions from sub-disciplines and related fields, see Glossary of cell biology, Glossary of genetics, Glossary of evolutionary biology, Glossary of ecology ...
The human condition can be defined as the characteristics and key events of human life, including birth, learning, emotion, aspiration, reason, morality, conflict, and death. This is a very broad topic that has been and continues to be pondered and analyzed from many perspectives, including those of art , biology , literature , philosophy ...
Other terms in biology refer similarly to various taxa; for example: Fungi are described by their growth patterns: molds, yeasts, mushrooms and dimorphic fungi. Lichens structure is described their growth form: foliose, crustose, fruticose or gelatinous. Bryophytes structure is described as foliose or thallose.