The evolutionary process which produces new species diverged from a single ancestral from and adapted to new invaded habitats and to modes of life necessary there, is known as adaptive radiation or divergent evolution. In other words, the process of evolution of different species in a given geographical area starting from a point and literally radiating to other areas of geography (habitats) is called adaptive radiation. 

Example of adaptive radiation are as follows– 

(1) Adaptive radiation is shown by Australian marsupial mammals. A number of marsupials, each different from the other evolved from an ancestral stock, but all within the Australian island continent. They flourished and evolved along different lines into fossorial, arboreal, semiaquatic, aquatic and terrestrial forms. 

(2) Another example of adaptive radiation is shown by Darwin’s finches in Galapagos islands. These finches, to avoid competition, diverged along different lines from a common ancestral stock. They adapted to new invaded habitats and to modes of life necessary in such habitats by showing variations in bill shape, feather colour etc. 

(3) Another example is based on locomotion in mammals. A variety of mammals such as cheetah, elephant, squirrel, bat, kangaroo and deer have limbs for locomotion. Limbs in all these mammals have common origin but have been modified differently in different mammals and also serve different functions.