Adaptations
Essential Question: What is
an adaptation and how does
it help an organism survive?
Adaptations
▪ Adaptations:
▪ are inherited characteristics that help
an organism survive and reproduce
within a particular environment.
▪ Can be:
▪ Anatomical
▪ Behavioral
▪ Physiological
Anatomical Adaptations
▪ Any external physical
feature that helps an
organism adapt to its
environment.
▪ Examples:
▪ Bill of a bird
▪ Fur on a bear
Behavioral Adaptations
▪ Activities or behaviors
that organisms do to
survive
▪ Examples:
▪ Bird calls
▪ Migration
▪ Nocturnal
Physiological Adaptations
▪ Any internal physical
feature that helps a
plant or animal carry
out life functions.
▪ Examples:
▪ Toxins
▪ Slime secretion
Organism #1: Venus Fly Trap
Description: The Venus flytrap is a type of
flowering plant that is best known for being
carnivorous.
▪
The “trap” is made of two hinged leaf lobes
that are covered in hair-like projections that
cause the lobes to snap shut when prey
comes in contact with them. The “trap” is
edged with small bristles that interlock when
the trap shuts to ensure the prey can’t squirm
its way out. Often the plant release a “sweet”
smell to attract prey. Like all plants, the
Venus flytrap gets its energy from the sun in
a process called photosynthesis. It digests
insects and arachnids to get nutrients that
are not available in the surrounding
environment
Organism #2:
The Aye-aye (Daubentonia
madagascariensis) is native to
Madagascar that combines
rodent-like teeth with a long,
thin middle finger to fill the
same ecological niche as a
woodpecker. It is the world’s
largest nocturnal primate, and
is characterized by its unusual
method of finding food; it taps
on trees to find grubs, then
gnaws holes in the wood and
inserts its elongated middle
finger to pull the grubs out.
Organism #3:
The star-nosed mole’s snout has
22 fleshy tentacles that are used
to identify food by touch and
through seismic vibrations!
Often found in North America, it
lives in wet lowland areas and
eats small invertebrates, aquatic
insects, worms and molluscs. It
has fur that produces an oily
water-repellent substance
which allows that mole to be a
good swimmer and can forage
along the bottoms of streams
and ponds.