Final answer:
Adaptations are heritable traits that arise from natural selection, helping organisms survive and reproduce in their environment. Examples include webbed feet in platypuses for swimming and thick fur in snow leopards for warmth in cold climates.
Step-by-step explanation:
The traits that have arisen as a consequence of specialized adaptations during the evolution of an organism are known as adaptations. These are genetically based traits that have evolved because they help living things survive and reproduce in a given environment. For example, the webbed feet of a platypus are an adaptation for swimming, and the thick fur of a snow leopard is an adaptation for living in cold climates.
Through the process of natural selection, traits that increase an organism's fitness in its environment become more common within the population over generations. This process leads to the evolution of specialized features that are well-suited to an organism's lifestyle and habitat. Therefore, adaptations are integral to the evolutionary process and illustrate the dynamic nature of species as their environments change.