Adaptations

• Habitat


  A place where an organism makes its home. Habitats include forests, lakes, rivers, seas, deserts, the Arctic and Antarctic.
• Adaptation


  Special characteristics that help living things to survive in their natural habitats
• What living things adapted to their habitats can do

  • Get air, water, and food
  • Cope with physical conditions like temperature, light, and rainfall
  • Protect themselves from enemies
  • Reproduce
• Types of adaptations


  • Structural adaptations
  • Behavioural adaptations
• Adaptations for movement on land

  • Cheetahs have partially extended claws for better running and a tail for balance
  • Grasshoppers have powerful hind legs for jumping and short front legs for walking
  • Snakes have special scales on the underside that grip the surface and help them move
• Adaptations for movement in water

  • Sharks have a streamlined body to move easily in water
  • Ducks have webbed feet that act like paddles to swim faster
  • Fish have flippers to help paddle and a streamlined body shape with modified limbs like fins and a tail to help them move forward and stay afloat
• Adaptations for movement in air

  • Birds have well developed wings that are modified limbs, hollow yet strong bones to reduce weight, feathers that make light but strong wings and keep them warm, and a streamlined body shape
  • Bats, some insects, and most birds can fly to escape danger and catch prey easily. Their small size helps them fly easily.
• Adaptations for breathing in water

  • Frogs, flatworms, and toads can breathe through their skin
  • Fish, shrimp, and tadpoles have gills
  • Seals and manatees have special nostrils that open when they surface and close underwater
  • Mudskippers and crabs have gill chambers to store water and keep their gills wet
  • Mosquito larvae, water scorpions, and water stick insects have air tubes to help them breathe
  • The water beetle uses its hairy legs to trap air bubbles and breathe, and the water spider fills its underwater home with air from the surface
• Adaptations for protection


  • Body coverings
  • Appearing bigger
  • Mimicry
  • Poisonous skin
  • Camouflage
• Adaptations for reproduction in animals


  • Behaviour
  • Body covering
• Adaptations for reproduction in plants

  • Lighting up
  • Pollination
  • Seed dispersal
• Many plants and animals have died out or become extinct because they did not have the structural or behavioural adaptations to survive in their natural habitats
• Extinction


  There are no more individuals of a particular plant or animal left on Earth
• Some living things are endangered