Final answer:
Adaptations are the heritable characteristics that help individuals survive and reproduce more successfully than others in a population. These arise through the process of natural selection, which favors traits that are advantageous in a particular environment, ultimately leading to evolution.
Step-by-step explanation:
The specific characteristics that enable individuals in a population to survive and produce better than other members of the same population are known as adaptations. Adaptations are the result of the process of natural selection, which acts on the phenotype (the observable characteristics) of an individual. These adaptations may include various traits such as better running speed, camouflage, or resistance to diseases, that give some individuals an advantage over others, making them more likely to survive, reproduce, and pass on their advantageous genes to their offspring.
Over time, these traits can become more common within the population, leading to evolution - a change in the allele frequencies and makeup of the population. Factors such as mutations, genetic drift, and gene flow can introduce new variations into a population or change allele frequencies, but it is through natural selection that beneficial traits become prevalent. Therefore, adaptations help a population become more 'fit' in terms of survival and reproduction within their specific environment.