Sentences with phrase «called adaptive radiation»

This phenomenon, commonly called adaptive radiation, means that the original (homogeneous) species eventually divides into subspecies that can be very different in physical appearance - so - called phenotypic differences - because they have been selected for and adapted to different habitats or specific niches.

Groups such as mammals and frogs are known to have rebounded rapidly after that event, diversifying into multiple new forms as they occupied newly available niches — a process evolutionary biologists called adaptive radiation.