Three Kinds of Adaptations · seed 1 · A4, ink-friendly. The answer key prints on its own page for grown-ups.

Three Kinds of Adaptations

Science · Animals of the World · ages 9-11
Name ______________________   Date ____________

  1. Which of these is a physiological adaptation?

    • A crab's hard claws
    • A firefly's body making its own light
    • A sparrow building a nest in spring

  2. What is a structural adaptation?

    • A body part that helps an animal survive
    • Something an animal learns to do
    • A trip an animal takes each year

  3. Every year, geese fly south before winter. What is this behaviour called?

    • Hibernation
    • Echolocation
    • Migration

  4. Antifreeze in an Arctic fish's blood is a structural adaptation.

    Circle one:   True   False

  5. Which of these is a behavioural adaptation?

    • A polar bear's thick white fur
    • A bird migrating south for winter
    • Antifreeze in a fish's blood

  6. A scar a fox got in a fight is an adaptation.

    Circle one:   True   False

  7. In natural selection, which animals usually survive and have more young?

    • The ones that are the biggest
    • The ones born with a feature that helps them survive
    • The ones that want to change the most

  8. Bats use echolocation to find insects in the dark. What kind of adaptation is this?

    • A physiological adaptation, because of how its body makes and senses sound
    • A structural adaptation, because of the shape of its ears
    • A behavioural adaptation, because the bat chooses to do it

  9. Long ago in one valley, some wild horses were born with slightly longer legs, which helped them run from danger. Which ending shows natural selection at work?

    • All the horses grew longer legs in one year because they wanted to run faster
    • The longer-legged horses escaped danger more often, had more foals, and over many generations most horses had longer legs
    • The longer-legged horses taught the others how to grow longer legs too

  10. Green beetles blend into leaves, but brown beetles get spotted and eaten more often. What will most likely happen after many generations?

    • More beetles will be brown
    • All beetles will turn green in one summer
    • More beetles will be green
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Answer key

For grown-ups. Fold this page away before handing over the rest.

Three Kinds of Adaptations W1-mt_EaWjCyn8W2-s1

  1. A firefly's body making its own light · Making light happens inside the firefly's body, so it is physiological. Claws are structural, and nest building is behavioural.
  2. A body part that helps an animal survive · Structural means a body part, like a long neck or sharp talons.
  3. Migration · Traveling somewhere else for a season is called migration.
  4. False · The antifreeze works inside the body, in the blood. That makes it physiological, not structural.
  5. A bird migrating south for winter · Migrating is something the bird does, so it is a behavioural adaptation, not a body part or an inner body process.
  6. False · A scar happens to one animal during its life. Adaptations are features animals are born with, built up over many generations.
  7. The ones born with a feature that helps them survive · Animals born with a helpful feature survive more often and have more young, so the feature spreads.
  8. A physiological adaptation, because of how its body makes and senses sound · Echolocation depends on special body systems for making and hearing echoes, so it counts as physiological.
  9. The longer-legged horses escaped danger more often, had more foals, and over many generations most horses had longer legs · Natural selection starts with animals born with a helpful feature. They survive and have more young, so the feature spreads over generations.
  10. More beetles will be green · Green beetles survive more often and have more young, so green spreads over many generations.
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