The rapid evolutionary diversification of a single ancestral species into many new species adapted to different ecological niches. It typically occurs when organisms colonize new environments with many available niches.
From Latin 'adaptare' meaning 'to fit' and 'radiatus' meaning 'furnished with rays or spokes'. The term was coined in the 1940s by paleontologist George Gaylord Simpson to describe how lineages spread out like rays from a central point into different adaptive zones.
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