Lesson video

Welcome to this lesson from the Oak National Academy.

Today's lesson is taken from the unit Adaptations, Competition, Natural Selection, and Evolution, and we're gonna focus on adaptations.

Should be a really wonderful lesson today.

We're gonna have a look at some of the really weird ways that animals and plants and just living organisms in general are adapted in order to survive and to reproduce.

I'm Mrs. Wheate, and I'll be taking you for today's lesson.

By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to describe the adaptations of some species that make them well suited to survive in their environment.

Let's have a look at our keywords for today.

We've got three keywords.

We have adaptation, camouflage, and photosynthesis.

We'll have a look at our definitions now.

You don't need to memorise these, but if you want to, you can pause the video, you can read through them, you can copy them down.

Whatever's gonna help you make them stick in your head.

So, here they are.

Today's lesson is in three parts.

First of all, we'll talk about adaptations in general, and then we'll talk about adaptations in animals, and then look at some of the ways that plants are adapted in order to survive.

But first of all, adaptations.

So you might be wondering, "Why am I showing you some pictures of shoes in a biology lesson?" Shoes aren't alive.

They've never been alive.

But bear with me, I promise it's relevant.

So whilst they're both examples of a type of shoe or a type of footwear, they're really, really different.

We've got the football boot and we've got the ice skate.

They perform different functions.

You don't really see them in the same sort of area.

You wouldn't see an ice skate in the football field.

You wouldn't see a football boot on an ice skating rink.

That wouldn't go very well.

But they're both examples of footwear.

They both have special features that help them perform their function.

So you've got the football boot.

The football boot has got studs on the bottom of it that helps you grip to the ground.

The ice skate obviously has a blade on the bottom of it that helps you to skate around on the ice.

So even though they're both examples of kind of the same thing, of footwear, they have different features, or you could say adaptations, that help to suit their function and their environment.

Living organisms are really similar.

All living organisms have features that help them to survive and reproduce in the places that they live.

So if we have a look at some of my photos here, we've got some really wonderful and different organisms that all have different features.

They're all alive, they're all living organisms. They've all got DNA, they've got tonnes of stuff in common, but they look so, so, so different.

Have a look at these photos and have a think.

Can you name one thing that maybe one of these organisms has that helps it to survive and thrive in its environment? So, you've got five seconds, or you can pause the video if you need a bit more time to think.

Click play when you're ready to hear the answer.

I wonder what you came up with.

Maybe you talked about the peacock feathers, which are really, really bright, and dazzle the females of the species in order to make it more likely that they'll mate with the males of the species.

Maybe you talked about the flowers on the tree, which are to attract pollinators like bees, or toxins that mushrooms produce to ensure that they don't get eaten by herbivores.

Or maybe you talked about that iguana, which is really difficult to see.

The pattern on its scales mean that it's camouflaged.

Or the shark, which has got gills which allow it to breathe underwater, to take in oxygen from the water.

That plant there.

Did you know what that was? That's a Venus fly trap, which are really, really cool plants, and they live in nutrient-poor soil, and so in order to get essential nitrogen, flies fly into them, they snap shut, and they dissolve the fly and get the nitrogen from that fly.

Isn't that fascinating? You could talk about the polar bear.

Really, really classic example when we're talking about adaptations.

So many things you could say about the polar bear, the colour of its fur, the size of its feet, or maybe you talked about the hard exoskeleton of the stag beetle, which make it super tough.

All of these different features are called adaptations, and they help the organisms survive in the various places that they live.

Let's see if you understood that.

Complete the sentence about adaptations.

"Adaptations are special features living organisms have to help them blank and blank in their environment." Pause the video to give yourself as much time as you need.

Click play when you're ready to see the answers.

Okay.

"Adaptations are special features living organisms have to help them survive and reproduce in their environment." Great work if you got that right.

Adaptations are specific to the environment that the organism lives.

So here, we've got a shark, which is living underwater.

Here we've got stag beetle living in the forest.

You wouldn't see those two swapping places and trying to live in each other's environment.

A shark has adaptations that help it live in the water like its streamlined shape, like the fact that it's got gills.

It wouldn't survive living in a forest.

For starters, it wouldn't be able to take in oxygen from the air.

It has to take in oxygen that's dissolved in water, so it would die pretty quickly.

Similarly, a beetle's adaptations that help it live in forests, it wouldn't survive living in the water.

So go back to my original analogy about the shoes.

If you're invited to an ice skating party, don't wear football boots.

If you're invited to a football party, don't wear ice skates.

These different organisms have different features, adaptations, which help them to thrive, survive, and reproduce in their environment.

They don't work if you kind of pick them up and move them to a different place.

Those adaptations don't work in a different environment.

A super, super common adaptation that some organisms have is camouflage.

So let's have a look at those animals in the pictures below.

Can you see all of them? Maybe you can't.

We've got a chameleon amongst some plants.

We've got an owl in a tree, and we've got a crab there, which I think is the hardest to see.

Camouflage is about blending into your surroundings.

Camouflage is a strategy that organisms use to disguise their appearance, usually by blending in with their surroundings.

Camouflage allows predators to hunt for prey undetected, and allows prey to hide from predators.

So, the owl is a predator.

It's constantly on the lookout for things like small rodents.

It doesn't want small rodents in order to see it, otherwise they're gonna run away.

So the owl having the same colorings and markings of the tree allow it to scan the area and look for prey without the prey getting wise and running away from the owl.

Okay, let's see how we're doing.

This is a photo of an animal called a stick insect.

Where is it best adapted to live? Is it A, a river; B, a desert; is it C, a forest; or D, the Arctic? Take a look at it.

Have a think about which environment you think it's best suited for.

Pause the video now to give yourself a chance to think about your answer.

Click play when you're ready to see the answers.

Let's have a look at the answers.

It's best suited for the forest.

So, I don't think this would do very well in a river.

It's an insect.

It doesn't have gills.

It's not gonna be very good at swimming.

It's not super camouflaged in the desert either.

It's not a sandy colour.

The forest however, lots of wood, lots of sticks.

That's where this thing is gonna thrive.

The Arctic, again, a white environment.

It's not camouflaged there.

So, it's the forest.

Well done if you got that right.

Let's have a go at our first practise task.

Give one adaptation for the bearded dragon that allows it to live in the desert.

Give one reason the bearded dragon wouldn't be successful in an aquatic environment like the sea or a lake.

Give two adaptations for the bluefin tuna that allow it to live in the ocean.

Give two reasons the bluefin tuna wouldn't be successful in a desert environment.

So have a look at the pictures.

So we've got the bearded dragon, a reptile.

We've got the bluefin tuna, a fish.

Have a look at what you can see.

Think about the colours, think about their shape, think about what their skin is like, and apply that to these answers.

Pause the video for a few minutes while you have a go.

Click play when you're ready to see the answers.

Okay, let's go through our answers.

So one adaptation for the bearded dragon that allows it to live in the desert.

You could have said it's got the same colour as its surroundings.

So it's camouflaged.

It's that sandy coloured.

It's got scales instead of fur.

Fur would insulate the lizard.

It would make it way too hot.

So it doesn't have any fur.

It's got scales instead.

So, Give one reason the bearded dragon wouldn't be successful in an aquatic environment, like a lake, the sea, the ocean.

you could have said it doesn't have fins.

So it's likely to be a poor swimmer.

It's a sandy colour, so it's not camouflaged in an aquatic environment.

There's tonnes of things you could have said.

These are just a couple that I thought of.

Right, let's look at the answers to three and four.

Give two adaptations for the bluefin tuna that allow it to live in the ocean.

It has fins so it can swim easily.

It's camouflaged, so it blends in with its surroundings so it can hunt and hide from predators.

It's got gills so it can breathe underwater.

Again, if you thought of different ones, that's totally fine.

These are just a few that I thought of.

It's a streamlined shape, which makes it easier to swim.

Okay.

Give two reasons why the bluefin tuna wouldn't be successful in a desert environment.

It's not camouflaged for a sandy environment.

Bluefin tuna.

It's blue.

It has fins instead of arms or legs, so very difficult to move on land.

Not sure it would do very well.

That would be quite sad, actually.

I think it would struggle quite a lot.

And it's got gills instead of lungs, so it can't breathe oxygen that isn't dissolved in water.

Great work.

You've done your first practise task.

Let's move on to the next part of the lesson.

So, we've looked at adaptations.

We've seen why they're important.

We've looked at some few key examples, and we understand now why adaptations are suited for specific environments.

Now we're gonna look at some more key examples of adaptations in animals.

"Animals are an incredibly diverse group of organisms. They have acquired adaptation to allow them to live on every continent on the planet." Every continent on the planet has animals on there.

Isn't that incredible? We're gonna look at two examples of animals which are very closely related, but incredibly different, and incredibly adapted to their environment.

So we're gonna look at an Arctic fox, which lives in the Arctic, the North polar region, and a Fennec fox, which lives in the desert.

So they're both different types of foxes, but they're really, really, really different.

We'll look at the Arctic fox first.

So Arctic foxes live in the Arctic and are adapted to survive in low temperatures.

We'll look at some adaptations that it has that helps it to survive in low temperatures.

So starting off with its ears, it's got small ears to reduce heat loss.

The more area an organism has, the more opportunity there is for heat to transfer away from the organism.

So having small features like small ears reduces the chance of that happening.

So the fur is white, and this is to blend in with a background, camouflage.

It's got a thick coat and it's got a thick fat layer in order to keep warm.

Super, super important if it's trying to survive in really cold conditions in the Arctic.

It's got pads on its feet to help insulate the feet on the cold ground and help it to grip, so it's not siding all over the place and its feet aren't freezing.

So it's still able to walk and run reasonably well.

It's got short, thick limbs in order to reduce heat loss.

This is similar to those small ears.

It just creates less area for there to be heat transferring away from the organism.

And finally, it's got this greasy layer on its fur that helps it to repel water, and to dry quickly.

So these are all adaptations that actually really, really common to all Arctic animals.

Having the small ears, having white fur, having a thick coat or having a thick layer of fat.

Short, thick limbs and greasy fur.

Lots and lots of different Arctic animals have that, and that helps them to survive and to reproduce in the Arctic.

Okay, let's see if you understood that.

Arctic animals often have white fur.

Is that true or false? You've got five seconds now.

Or you can pause the video to think about your answer.

Click play when you're ready to see the answer.

That is true.

Let's justify the answer.

Is it true because they have white fur to keep warm or for camouflage? Take five seconds now or pause the video.

Click play when you're ready to see the answer.

It is for camouflage, the fact that it is white fur, that's to camouflage with the snow.

Great work if you got that right.

Okay, let's talk about the Fennec fox now.

Fennec foxes live in the desert, and are adapted to survive in high temperature environments with little water.

So you can already look at this thing and see, "Whoa, this is a fox, but this is very different looking." Okay, and we'll talk about why that is.

Let's start with those amazing ears.

So it has large ears to increase heat loss.

The Arctic fox has those teeny tiny ears to reduce heat loss.

This is the opposite.

The more area these ears have, the more likely it is that heat's gonna be radiating away from this organism's body.

So the fur is a completely different colour.

It's a sandy colour.

This is still to blend in with the background.

But the background, the environment that this fox lives in is sand.

It's desert.

So it needs to be sandy coloured.

Another example of camouflage.

So it's got a short coat in order to increase heat loss, as opposed to thick coat that the Arctic fox had.

It's got long, thin limbs instead of short, thick ones.

Again to increase heat loss.

So it's just increasing the area, the organism has more opportunities for heat to transfer away.

We're gonna look at two examples of adaptations, which you can't actually see.

These are things that it does in its behaviour that help it to survive and reproduce.

So, animals like this in the desert tend to be, really great word crepuscular, which means most active at dawn or dusk when it's cooler.

At nighttime, it's actually really, really cold in the desert.

So some animals just do dawn and dusk, crepuscular.

Other animals can be nocturnal.

So, most active at nighttime, again so avoiding the really, really hot part of the day, where they're gonna be sweating or panting a lot.

And then we're gonna have lots of water evaporating, which is then gonna lead to dehydration.

This isn't to do with their behaviour as an adaptation, but it isn't something that you can really see.

So they produce a small amount of concentrated urine in order to reduce water loss.

So, if you urinate and you're releasing tonnes and tonnes of water, that's really wasteful if you're in an environment where there's not much water.

So lots and lots of desert animals do this.

They don't release urine in a kind of typical way.

It's super, super concentrated.

Not much water in there.

So lots of these, again, are common adaptations to desert animals, animals that live in hot environments.

Having large ears or having really long thin limbs, having sandy coloured fur, having a short coat or maybe having scales instead, if you're a reptile, being active at dawn or dusk or at nighttime, and producing a really small amount of concentrated urine.

Those are super common to tonnes of different desert animals.

Okay, which of the following is an adaptation for a desert animal? Small ears and tail produces lots of dilute urine.

Most active at dawn and dusk, white to blend in with surroundings, camouflage.

Take five seconds or pause the video to think about your answer.

Click play when you're ready to see the answer.

The answer is C, most active at dawn and dusk.

Great job if you got that.

So, small ears and a small tail.

That would reduce the amount of heat loss.

That's not what a desert animal wants.

Desert animal wants to increase its amount of heat loss.

Lots of dilute urine.

That's not great.

That's wasting tonnes of water.

There's not much water in the desert.

White to blend in with surroundings.

No, that doesn't work.

It needs to be a sandy colour in order to live in the desert environment.

So most active at dawn and dusk is super helpful for desert animals, 'cause it means that they're not around during the hottest part of the day.

Great job if you got that.

Let's have a go at this practise task.

"Describe and explain three adaptations for each example below.

Use the information from the image or your own knowledge to help you." So number one, name some adaptations of a polar bear that enable it to live in a cold environment.

Number two, adaptations of the camel that enable it to live in a hot environment.

Pause the video now.

Give yourself some time, and when you're ready to see the answers, click play.

Good luck everyone.

Okay, let's look at some of the adaptations of a polar bear.

Lots of things you could have said.

These are just some examples.

So it's got small ears to reduce heat loss.

It's got greasy fur that helps it to dry quickly.

It's got short, thick limbs to reduce heat loss.

Its fur is white, which blends it into the background to camouflage.

It's got a thick coat and fat layer to keep warm.

It's also got pads on its feet that help insulate the feet on the ground, which help it to grip.

Great work if you've got any of those, and amazing work if you've got some of them that maybe that I didn't even mention.

Let's look at the camel.

So, adaptations of the camel.

Let's have a look.

Fur is sandy coloured to blend in with the background, short coat to increase heat loss.

Long, thin limbs to increase heat loss, produces concentrated urine to reduce water loss.

It's got a hard mouth to eat desert plants like cacti, it's got large, wide feet to make it easier to walk on the sand.

So this isn't a completely comprehensive list.

There's lots of other adaptations you could have talked about.

Maybe their eyelashes, which help keep sand out of their eyes.

But these are just some examples of how they're adapted to live in the desert.

Great job if you've got those, guys.

So we've talked about adaptations, what they are, how they work, and why they're useful.

And we've talked about adaptations in animals, but plants can be adapted too, and in really interesting ways.

So that's what we're gonna talk about for this last part of the lesson.

Plants are also an incredibly diverse group of organisms. They have various adaptations to help them survive in their habitats, and to maximise photosynthesis.

So look at all these amazing plants we have here.

We've got different coloured leaves, different types of flower.

We've got the amazing Venus fly trap, a carnivorous plant.

We've got some algae, some succulents, and we've got some fruit, chilies, and we've got the leaves of a cauliflower.

A cauliflower? Oh no, that's a cabbage, isn't it? So there's a huge diversity in plants.

They're not all just the same.

They don't all just do the same thing.

They have really wonderful adaptations too, just like animals do.

So photosynthesis obviously is a really big deal for plants.

It's how they make their food, glucose.

And so they have tonnes of adaptations then to help them maximise photosynthesis.

Let's look at them.

So, one of the adaptations is that their plants have leaves that contain chlorophyll, and this helps them absorb sunlight, which they need in order to provide energy with photosynthesis.

Lots of plants have got broad leaves to maximise light absorption, again for light, for energy, for photosynthesis.

And lots of plants have very thin leaves and this helps maximise gas exchange, so that carbon dioxide can get into the plant and oxygen can get outta the plant.

Plants have other adaptations too, that don't really have anything to do with photosynthesis, and just generally help them to survive and reproduce.

Let's have a look.

So some plants, this is a thistle, have got thorns and that helps deter herbivores from eating them.

Some plants have got beautiful flowers that help attract pollinators, so that they can reproduce, and some plants create fruit, and this helps them to disperse their seeds, which is really useful.

We'll talk about that in the future lesson on competition.

Let's check your progress.

Match the adaptation to the reason for the adaptation.

So flowers, broad leaves and fruit, you need to match those correctly with either to maximise sunlight absorption, to attract pollinators, or to aid seed dispersal.

Pause the video here, whilst you think about your answers.

Click play when you're ready to see the answers.

Let's check your answers.

So, flowers are for attracting pollinators.

Plants have broad leaves in order to maximise sunlight absorption and they have fruit to aid seed dispersal.

Great job if you got that right.

So, those are some general adaptations for plants, but plants can live in really extreme environments as well.

And so then, they need some extreme adaptations in order to survive in those environments.

Let's have a look at a cacti as an example.

So cacti are plants that often live in dry places like deserts, and have adaptations to help them survive.

We'll look at some of those adaptations now.

So instead of leaves, the leaves are reduced to spines, and these reduce water loss and protect the plant from being eaten by consumers.

The cacti have got swollen stems, which stores water.

Again, super useful in a dry desert environment.

Photosynthesis takes place in the green stem, not the leaves.

So in most plants, photosynthesis takes place in the leaves, but not in cacti 'cause they don't have leaves.

They have these spines instead.

So cacti, some of their roots are really long, and this helps them get water from deep underground.

But actually they also have some quite shallow roots as well.

They've got the combination of the two, and this helped the plants to get water from dew.

So that's water that settles on the ground in the morning.

So those are some adaptations of cacti.

You can see they're super different from plants that you might see in your local park, but maybe you have some in school.

You're lucky to have one at home.

They're still plants, they're still adapted.

They just live in a really extreme environment.

Let's see if you understood that.

Which of the following is not an adaptation of a desert plant? A, broad leaves to maximise photosynthesis; B, long roots to get water deep underground; C, shallow roots helps the plant to get water from dew; D, spines instead of leaves to reduce water loss.

You can take five seconds or you can pause the video if you need a bit more time.

Click play when you're ready to see the answer.

Let's look at the answer.

A, broad leaves to maximise photosynthesis.

So, it's so sunny in the desert, the plant doesn't need any extra help in order to get sunlight from photosynthesis.

It does need long roots to help get water from deep underground.

It does also need some shallow roots to help get water from dew, and it's got these spines instead of leaves, which reduces water loss.

Great job if you got that right.

Well done.

We're on our final practise task for today's lesson.

For each plant, describe and explain two ways they're adapted to survive.

So, have a look at the photo.

Maybe you have some own knowledge of the plants, but think about how the blackberry plant is adapted to survive, how the cactus is, and how this horse chestnut tree, you can see the leaves, you can see the flowers there.

How are they adapted to survive? You're gonna need to pause the video now to give yourself ample time in order to write down your answers.

Click play when you're ready to see your answers.

Good luck everyone.

Okay, let's look at answers.

We'll start with the blackberry plants.

So it's got leaves that contain chlorophyll to absorb sunlight.

It's got broad leaves to maximise sunlight for photosynthesis.

It's got thin leaves to maximise gas exchange.

It produces fruit to help aid seed dispersal, and it's got thorns to deter herbivores.

Great job if you got those right.

Let's look at the cacti.

Leaves are reduced to spines.

These reduce water loss and protect the plant from being eaten by consumers.

Shallow roots help the plant get water from dew.

Swollen stem stores water.

Photosynthesis takes place in the green stem, not in the leaves.

And the plant has long roots to help get water from deep underground.

Okay, and let's look at the horse chestnut tree.

So lots of these adaptations are similar to the adaptations that the blackberry plant had.

Leaves containing chlorophyll to absorb sunlight, broad leaves to maximise sunlight absorption for photosynthesis, and thin leaves to maximise gas exchange.

What's different about the two photos is in this plant, you can see the flowers.

So flowers are to attract pollinators.

Well done if you got that.

Amazing work today.

We've covered so much, talking about so many different wonderful ways that animals and plants can be adapted for their environment.

Let's summarise that to help it stick in our brains.

"Adaptations are special features that all organisms have, which help them to survive and reproduce in their environment.

Both animals and plants can have adaptations that help them to survive in extreme environments like the Arctic or desert.

Animals tend to have adaptations that help them hunt prey or avoid being eaten by predators.

Plants tend to have adaptations that help them maximise the amount of photosynthesis that they can carry out." Great work everyone.

I hope you really enjoyed today's lesson.

I'll see you back here soon, but right now have a bit of a break, because you've worked so hard.