Biology P2 Adaptations AQA combined scienec foundation

There are no specific examples of adaptations required in the specification. In the exam, you could br given information on any living organism and asked to suggest how it is adapted for it’s environment.

1) Camels

Camels are adapted to the hot and dry conditions of a desert. Many of these are structural adaptations.

Structural adaptations are adaptations of body shape or body structure.

Cables have a hump on their back which is a store of fat. Fat is a thermal insulator. By storing fat in one place, this allows heat loss from the other parts of the camel's body. This reduces water loss from sweating.

Secondly, metabolic reactions can be used to produce water from the fat. Camels have a thick coat on the upper surface of their body. This insulates the top of the camel from the heat of the sun. Again, this reduces water loss from sweating.

The inside of a camel's mouth is leathery. This means that they can chew desert plants which often have thorns. These plants can be a good source of water.

Camels have long eyelashes to keep dust out of their eyes. They can also close their nostrils to keep dust out of their nose.

Finally, camels have wide feet which prevents the camel from sinking into the sand. Camels have a range of structural adaptations to cope with the hot and dry conditions of the desert.

Camels also have functional adaptations. Functional adaptations are adaptations to the body functions of an organism.

Firstly, camels produce concentrated urine and dry faeces. Both of these reduce water loss.

Secondly, camels can tolerate very large changes in their body temperature. This helps them to cope with the intense heat of the desert.

2) Kangaroo rats

Many animals also have behavioural adaptations. These are adaptations to the animals lifestyle or behaviour. A good example of this is the kangaroo rat which lives in the desert.

Kangaroo rats are nocturnal, in other words they are mainly active at night. This means that they avoid the heat of the daytime.

During the day, Kangaroo rats live in burrows underground. This keeps them coll and protects them from predators.

Many animals are adapted to live in cold conditions. This shoes an Artic Fox. This has a number of structural adaptations.

The artic fox has very thick fur. This provides insulation and reduces heat loss to the air. The artic fox also has fur on the soles of the feet. This reduces heat loss to the ice and the snow.

The artic fox has very small ears. This reduces the surface area of the fox, reducing heat loss.

Finally, the artic fox’s coat provides effective camouflage which helps the artic fox to hunt its prey.

Plants also have lots of different adaptations and a good example of rhis is the cactus which we fins in the desert.

Cacti are very well adapted to living in dry conditions. One big problem that plants face in dry conditions is losing water through their leaves. Cacti have solved this problem.

Some Cacti have very small leaves which reduces water loss. Other Cacti have no leaves at all, only spines. These spines also protect the cactus from animals.

Deserts are very dry and it does not rain very often. Because of this, Cacti have extensive and shallow roots. These allow Cacti to catch us mich water as possible after rainfall before the water evaporates or sinks into the ground.

Cacti can also store water in their stem. This means that Cacti can survive many months without rain.

Some organisms are adapted to live in very extreme conditions. These are called extremophiles. This shows a deep sea vent. We find these on the sea bed. The conditions around these are extremely harsh for example very high temperatures and pressures.

However, we can find bacteria living in these vents. These bacteria are extremophils. As well as high temperature and pressures, extremophils can also live in very high concentration of salt.

Adaptations that enable them to survive in the conditions in which they live.