Final answer:
An adaptation is a heritable characteristic that enhances an organism's survival and reproduction in its environment, making the statement A) True. Adaptations are crucial for the process of natural selection, ensuring that favorable traits are passed to subsequent generations. Option A is correct answer.
Step-by-step explanation:
An adaptation is a heritable trait that increases an organism’s chances of survival and reproduction within its environment. This concept is cornerstone to the process of evolution by natural selection, a fundamental principle in biology.
For instance, the various beak shapes of finches on the Galápagos Islands are adaptations that enable different species to utilize different food sources effectively. Over generations, these traits become more prevalent within the population as they confer advantages that lead to a higher likelihood of surviving and successfully reproducing.
Adaptations can be structural, like the webbed feet of a platypus, behavioral, such as the migratory patterns of birds, or physiological, like the ability of a species to digest a certain type of food. A key aspect of adaptations is that they are not just any heritable traits, but specifically those that improve the ‘fit’ of an organism to its environment, enabling it to be more successful in terms of survival and reproduction.
In conclusion, individuals most adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and pass their traits to the next generation. Therefore, the statement that an adaptation is an inherited characteristic that improves an organism’s chances to survive and reproduce is A) True.