Adaptations from structural change

The idea

Animal diversity is the outcome of changes in body structure over long periods; interconnected structural features are adaptations that help different animals meet the challenges of survival in their environments.

Different homes

A fish lives in water, a bird flies in the air, and a camel walks in a desert.

What do you think helps each of them to survive in its home?

• Body features that suit that environment
• The same body features in all three
• No special body features

Feature to challenge

Tap the bin where each feature belongs.

Features that fit

Each feature you sorted helps an animal with a particular challenge. In mammals, mammary glands are a further change that improves the survival of young ones. These features are interconnected.

Animal diversity is the outcome of changes in body structure over long periods; interconnected structural features are adaptations that help different animals meet the challenges of survival in their environments.

• Feature | What it helps with
• Fins and gills | fish move and breathe in water
• Feathers and hollow bones | flight in birds
• Fat storage in camels | survival in extreme conditions
• Thick fur in polar bears | survival in extreme conditions
• Mammary glands in mammals | survival of young ones

Notes

Animal diversity is the outcome of changes in body structure over long periods; interconnected structural features are adaptations that help animals meet the challenges of survival.

Check yourself

Which features let fish move and breathe in water?

What makes flight possible in birds?

What do mammary glands improve in mammals?

Animal diversity today is the outcome of ...

• Fins and gills — correct. Yes!
• Feathers and hollow bones. These make flight possible in birds.
• Mammary glands. These improve the survival of young ones in mammals.
• Fins and gills. Fins and gills allow fish to move and breathe in water.
• Feathers and hollow bones — correct. Yes!
• Thick fur. Thick fur in polar bears supports survival under extreme conditions.
• The ability to fly. Flight is made possible in birds by feathers and hollow bones.
• The ability to breathe in water. Gills allow fish to breathe in water.
• The survival of young ones — correct. Yes!
• changes in body structure over long periods of time — correct. Yes!
• animals keeping the same body for ever. The book says diversity is the outcome of changes in body structure over long periods.
• one change in a single generation. The book says the changes happened over long periods of time.