Your question is difficult to answer because nearly all parts of the body can be understood as adaptations. Certain traits like eye color probably aren't adaptive, but those are exceptional.

Hello,

I'm an artist who'd like to find out more about the many types of physical adaptations or evolutionary traits that creatures have developed and about their uses. I draw, sculpt, model and concept many imaginary creatures, but I'd like to bring much more realism in my work.

I've started to research animal and human adaptations more, but unfortunately, I can't find much in the sense of what I'm looking for. What i'm really interesting in is the structural adaptations of body parts.

For instance, as far as I remember from Anthropology Class (very long ago) the shoulder blade's shape and placement differ between a human and a monkey. This affects the range of motion and how the arms are used. Another example would be the pelvis, looking at it, you can tell whether a creature is a biped or quadruped. I think you can also look at the nails of a creature and tell whether it can climb trees, dig or etc. These are the things I want to know about.

I'd like to learn about more adaptations that creatures (outside of primates) have. Mainly this is to do with their bones, but anything really would help. If there is an encyclopedia of adaptations, or even a website, this would also be of interest to me.

So please give me a list of resources or places to start on my quest to learn about adaptations and make my own constructed creatures more realistic.

Thanks :)