GOAL:

To develop an understanding of the interdependence of all organisms and the need for conserving natural resources

Organisms adapt to their environment.

Ecology Il.00 To understand the difference between adaptation and speciation.

1.01 compare and contrast morphological, physiological and behavioral adaptations and list examples for each.

1.02 explain the differences between adaptations involving deception and camouflage, including cryptic coloration, warning coloration, mimicry, and cite examples of each.

1.03 define speciation.

1.04 compare and contrast geographic isolation, and genetic isolation.

1.05 explain what is meant by reproductive isolation.

I. Animal adaptations
A. Morphological
B. Physiological
C. Behavioral
II. Types of deception and camouflage
A. Cryptic coloration
B. Chromatophores
C. Warning coloration (aposematic coloration)
D. Warning sound (aposematic sound)
E. Mimicry
F. Countershading
G. Disruptive coloration
III. Speciation
A. Geographic isolation
1. Natural barriers
2. Artificial barriers
B. Genetic isolation
C. Reproductive isolation

COMPONENT OF SCIENCE: Unifying Concepts Of Science

GOAL:

To enable students to acquire scientific knowledge by applying concepts, theories, principles and laws from life/environmental, physical and earth/space sciences.

2.5 CHANGE - Interactions within and among systems may result in changes in the properties, position, movement, form, or function of systems.

2.5b Cycles of change can be extended in scales of time, space and material.

BENCHMARK: Interdependence conveys a need for all organisms within the environment to develop a natural, uninhibited, rate of change.

TIME REQUIRED:

Three class settings of fifty-five (55) minutes each. Extra time required for enrichment and added activities.

Chalkboard and chalk, camouflage item of clothing, pictures of animals depicting camouflage, three different colored balloons, pictures of monarch and viceroy butterfly, small rubber animal (snake, fish etc.), flashlight, coloring sheet, nature table (to be constructed with the students), wire clothes rack, digging tool

Adaptation, behavioral adaptation, breeding population, camouflage, chromatophores, countershading, cryptic coloration, deception, disruptive coloration, genetic isolation, mimicry, morphological adaptation, physiological adaptation, speciation, species, warning coloration

This classroom connector addresses Instructional Objective 1.01.

How many of you got off of a perch today, flew on to school, after you fed yourself a breakfast of earthworms that you plucked using your beak? (response) Very few? (response) Everyone write the name of the animal that behaves in this way. (response should be bird) In today's lesson, we will learn how this particular animal and others all over the world have adapted their bodies to behave in certain ways in order to survive.

There are three major types of animal adaptations. The first type is morphological (write on board) These include adaptations involving the structures of organisms or their anatomy. Examine your left hand very carefully. Count the joints on each finger. (Three on each finger -- very good.) Imagine for one instant that these joints do not exist. Stiffen all of your fingers. Now try to pick up your pencil. Try to write your name. The multiple hand bones are a morphological adaptation that is very beneficial to man. Try to name more adaptations on your body that deal with your anatomy. (Knees that bend; foot bones - enable you to walk; pivotal neck joints enable your head to rotate; flexible spinal columns enable bending; elbows allow your arms to bend; thumb of hand provides grasping movement.) There are many more examples of animals with similar adaptations. Let's name and list some of these. (Use brainstorming technique to determine list) - (beaks of birds; hooves of horses; woodpeckers' tongues; anteaters' tongues; angler fishers' skulls; necks of giraffes; eagles' talons; turtles' shells.)

The second type of adaptations is physiological. (write on board) These are those adaptations involving the metabolism of organisms. If you prick your finger, how long does it take for the bleeding to stop? (Three to seven minutes.) Why does it stop? (Platelets cause clotting.) Your body has adapted itself to keep from bleeding to death. Name more physiological adaptations of the human body. (Brainstorm) (Enzymes to digest food; secretion of saliva; callus forms on skin with an abrasion; runny nose as reaction to dust and pollen; muscles contract to make heat; enzyme released by sperm to penetrate ovum.) Now think of physiological adaptations for other animals. (Secretion of venom in snakes; protein in spider's web; diving response in whales; cold water fish carry no oxygen in blood; smooth, thin skin of amphibians to enable respiration; darter has no swim bladder; hibernation in some animals.)

Behavioral adaptations (write on board) are the third type. These include the adaptations involving reactions to the environment. A human example of this would be for you to express nervousness if I told you to get out a clean sheet of paper for a pop quiz over the material covered thus far. Why would you be nervous? (response) Name other examples of human behavior adaptations. (Leave when hear bell; cry when sad; laugh when happy; go to refrigerator when hungry.) Now apply some of these same types of ideas to animal behavior. (Migration of birds; hunting and storing of nuts by squirrels; tracking abilities of hunting dogs; tropism of plants (bending toward light); cleaner wrasse vertically swims to clean gills of groupers; species young bite and wrestle to work out dominance groups; mating behaviors; grooming; whale songs; bird songs.

(The teacher will write on the board: A. Morphological B. Physiological C. Behavioral. As the teacher reads an example of an adaptation, the student will write its type on his paper. Adaptations to be read:
1. a monkey grooming its mate (C)

2. a spider biting and secreting venom (B)

3. a pelican's throat pouch (A)

4. hibernation (B)

5. mating behavior (B)

6. an elephant's trunk (A)

7. migration of birds (C)

8. a porcupine's quills (A)

9.a cleaner wrasse swimming vertically (A)

10. kittens wrestling (C)

Even though we have discussed three types of adaptations, any one depends upon the others to be successful. Divide the class into four groups. Assign each group an animal and list the adaptations that are interdependent upon each other. For example:
ADAPTATIONS

Animal

Morphological

Physiological

Behavioral

Canada goose

lightweight feathers & bones, strong muscles

muscle & nerve coordination, energy production

migration

Name the three types of adaptation that were discussed today.

This classroom connector addresses Instructional Objective 1.02.

Display an article of army camouflage clothing or gear. (Hat, knife, shirt, etc.) What is this? (response) Why is it colored in this way? (So that it will not be spotted easily.) In today's lesson we will discover how animals are able to camouflage and hide themselves almost as well as the army. This trickery is another means by which animals are able to adapt in order to survive.

Adaptations such as deception and camouflage (write terms on board) are widespread in nature. Name an animal that is camouflaged or hidden and so blends with its environment? (Peppered moth, tiger.) Some animals can use their body shape and behavior to hide. (Show pictures of the dead leaf butterfly, a pipefish that looks like a vertical blade of grass, and a katydid that looks like a leaf and twigs.) Others are able to use color. This hidden coloration is called cryptic coloration. (write on board) Show pictures of other animals that display this characteristic: green frogs in green water, dead leaf butterfly, cutworms on a tomato plant.

Some animals are able to change their colors by utilizing special color pigment cells called chromatophores. (write on board) When a certain color pigment spreads to cover almost the whole cell, that color may overshadow other cells. (Demonstrate by holding three different colored balloons in one hand. Blow up one balloon. This color will overshadow other colored pigments that may remain. Let that balloon down and blow up another color.) Name some examples of animals that display this technique. (Chameleon).

Warning coloration or aposematic coloration (write terms on board) is a very effective defense whereby an animal is colored so as to warn predators not to attack. The only true defense is that they are usually very distasteful to animals. Can you think of an animal that you stay well away from because of the smell? (Skunk.) How does its coloration warn you to stay away? (response) Name other examples. (Eye spots on moth, red salamander, coloration of poisonous snakes, bright colors in certain insects such as bees and wasps.)

Warning or aposematic sound (write on board) utilizes the same principle except that it is sound instead of color. Some moths click their legs to warn off bats. These moths have evolved the clicking ability to let the bats know that they are inedible because of the distasteful chemicals emitted from their bodies. Can you think of any others? (response)

Mimicry (write on board) is another type of adaptation. (Show pictures of a monarch butterfly and a viceroy.) Look at these two butterflies. Are they the same? (No.) how are they alike? (Coloration.) Do you know how they are different? (Viceroy is smaller and edible to birds whereas the monarch is larger and distasteful to birds.) Why would it be advantageous for the viceroy to mimic or resemble the monarch? (Protection from predators) Can you name other animals that utilize mimicry? (Flies resemble bees and wasps, the wrasse resembles the blenny in looks and behavior.)

Countershading (write on board) is the next type of camouflage. The majority of animals have light-colored bellies and dark backs. When light from above falls on them, the bodies tend to look uniformly colored and flat. (Pull out a small rubber fish, snake, or turtle. Use a flashlight to demonstrate sunlight. Show how countershading would make the animal harder to see when a light source is pointed down on an object with the dark side in the light.) This is also the way airplanes are camouflaged.

The last camouflage adaptation that we will talk about is disruptive coloration. (write on board) This uses strong color contrast to make some body parts very noticeable and the others disappear. (Place a butterfly on a similar colored piece of paper.) This butterfly tends to disappear. A predator would at quick glance see only splotches of unrelated color that did not resemble a butterfly. Why would camouflage of the eye be important? (Where there is an eye, there is an animal.) Why do predators try to attack areas near the eye? (The eye is near the brain and vital organs.) Can you think of examples of animals that are able to disguise the eye? (Some moths have eye spots on their wings; some moths have false heads on the wing tips; some animals have a black stripe across the eye.)

(Have the students collect pictures of animals that display camouflage and deceptive adaptations. Allow them to display these on a bulletin board that has the appropriate labels.)

(Have a nature table set up in the classroom. Animals can be collected, displayed, observed, studied, appreciated, and set free. This provides a hands-on experience for real-life examples of topics. New animals can be added as students make finds.)

(Provide a coloring book-like drawing of several animals and have the students to camouflage them appropriately. They should be able to tell the type of camouflage as well as why this particular type is effective.)

Write on your papers what we have discussed today.

(Conduct a short walking field trip to a nearby field or tree area close to the school. Have the students locate examples of camouflage in plants and animals.)

This classroom connector addresses Instructional Objectives 1.03, 1.04, 1.05.

How many of you have a cat for a pet? (response.) How many of you have a dog or dogs? (response.) How many have cats and dogs living together at the same household? (response.) How many of you had your cat to breed with your dog to produce a kit-uppy? (response.) None? Why? (They cannot breed because they are separate species.) That is what today's lesson is about. Plants and animals can only breed together with very similar plants and animals to produce offspring. We will also talk about speciation. (write on board) If we did not have speciation the earth would be filled with very unusual mixtures of species.

A species (write on board) is defined as a group of plants or animals that can breed together to produce viable, fertile offspring but that cannot do so with members outside the group. Name examples of a species of animal. (Lions, tigers, bears, cows, horses, sheep, elephants.) Do lions mate with cows? (response) Why not? (response) Why do species usually not cross? (response) Species usually do not cross due to the following reasons:
1. physically impossible because reproductive organs are not compatible

2. may have different mating seasons or spawning grounds so they never meet when in a breeding condition

3. one species may not recognize or respond to the courtship behavior of another species

4. if mating does occur the egg may not be fertilized or it may die before cell division takes place. The result may be a hybrid (horse + donkey = mule; cow + buffalo = beefalo)

In isolated instances species do cross. Can you think of any examples? (Horse + donkey = mule; lion + tiger = __ ; zebra + donkey = zonkey; leopard + tiger = __ ) How do scientists explain this? (Although distinctions between species are usually clear-cut, many ambiguities do exist.)

What have we just learned? (students will tell each other.)

(handout or write on the board) Study these possible crosses and predict the results:
1. tall man x tall woman =___

2. short man x short woman =___

3. swift antelope x swift antelope =___

4. male genes for dark coat x female genes for dark coat = ___

When organisms breed, genes from both parents are passed to the offspring so there are genetic similarities. When you go to choose a mate, where will you look? (Neighborhood, school, college) You probably will find someone within your range of travel, about your age, with similar interests, and with whom you can communicate. Animals are much like us in that respect. There will usually be a breeding population (write on board) within his species where he will find a mate. Rabbits from one area usually do not mate with rabbits from another area. This is genetic isolation. (write on board) The more interbreeding between two populations, the more similar the members will be.

There are three major factors leading to speciation (write on board) or the formation of a new species. Geographic isolation is one factor. (write on board) At one time the land masses were connected and the gene pool was shared with the species. After continental drift, species were split into isolated gene pool pockets. Different species occurred from these gene pool pockets. Species could be isolated from each other by barriers of different types. Name a barrier that could occur naturally and divide a species. (River, mountain, lake, ocean, forest, desert) Name an artificial barrier that could isolate a species. (Wall, railroad track, busy highway, canal, deforestation) Because of genetic isolation (write on board) from each gene pool, a new species is derived.

Reproductive isolation (write on board) occurs if the breeding population is limited to isolated pockets.

Class you will be involved in role playing to demonstrate how the various barriers will affect a species. (Mass a large group of volunteers from the class in the center of the room.) You will pretend to be a tree-dwelling species of monkey with long tails and big ears. Land developers will come along and cut a large path out of the center of the jungle (room). Now the monkeys cannot regroup to breed or interact. Group A is distinctly separated from Group B. Where will each group find mates? (response) Trees become scarce for group A so they adjust and become cave dwellers and adjust their diet accordingly. Now man moves into the middle of Group A and separates them again. Now this group becomes Group IA and IIA. IA lives and interacts with man and even depends on him for feeding. Group IIA still lives in caves and forages for Food. Go back to your seats. Write a short essay describing your life and how it changed with your habitat. From which group will you select your mate? (response) Why or why not From other groups? (response) Will each group become a new species? Why or why not? (response)

(Each person in the class is to choose any two animals of any species to cross. They may be as outlandish as the students like. They should name, draw, and describe the offspring and tell why or why not this cross is likely to occur. Post the results on the bulletin board for class viewing and discussion.)

Many zoos are finding it advantageous to breed specimens in captivity. If this practice continues, do you feel that there is a possibility that a separate "zoo species" will evolve? Write a paragraph expressing your views.

(Each person in the class will take a wire coat rack and a trowel on a field trip onto the school yard.) You will bend the hangers out to form a small square and place them on the grass anywhere you choose outside. Now locate as many species as possible inside your square. You may dig into the soil but you have to be careful to replace the flora and fauna just as you found it. See who can locate the most species.

("Who Lives Here" activity taken from Project Wild (Secondary) The major purpose of this project is to acquaint students with the distinction between native and non-native species. Background: Fossils indicate that even in prehistoric times animal populations had migrated to different geographical regions in response to climate and other conditions. These migrations took place over long periods of time. Sometimes the inhabitants of an area would disappear, having moved away or become extinct. Natural barriers such as land and water prevented some species from spreading but usually people have changed the wildlife population.)

As I name an animal, guess if it is native (indigenous) or non-native (introduced) to the United States. (Examples: introduced - brown trout, carp, Norway rat, nutria, chukar partridge, starling, English sparrow, Barbary sheep, African onyx, Axis deer, Hungarian partridge.)

Native species: wood rat, elk, bald eagle, mule deer, marmot, woodchuck, wolverine, bluebird, coyote, red fox. Choose one of these animals to research including:

1. Is it native to the area it inhabits?

2. What, if any, are the benefits of its presence?

3. What, if any, are the detrimental effects of its presence?

4. What is the history of its presence? (Why was it introduced?)

("Adaptation Artistry" Project Wild, (Secondary) The student will identify and describe the advantages of bird adaptations and evaluate the importance of adaptations to birds by designing and cresting an imaginary bird and writing a report describing the birds adaptations.)

Birds have a variety of adaptations - including characteristics of beaks, feet, legs, wings, and coloration. These adaptations have evolved so that the bird is better suited to its environment and lifestyle.

A variety of major bird adaptations are:

Adaptation	Bird	Advantage
Beaks	-	-
pouch-like	pelican	canhold fish
long, thin	avocet	probes water and mud for insects
pointed	woodpecker	probesbark of trees for insects
curved	hawk	can tear meat for food
short, stout	finches	can crack seeds and nuts
slender, long	hummingbird	can probe flowers for nectar
Feet	-	-
webbed	duck	aids in swimming
long toes	crane, heron	aids in walking on mud
clawed	hawk, eagle	grasps prey when hunting for food
grasping	chicken	aids in roosting
Legs	-	-
flexor	chicken	aids in perching
tendons strong	ostrich	aids in running
tendons slender	crane, heron	aids in wading
muscles strong	eagle, hawk	aids in lifting
Wings	-	-
large	eagle	aids flying with prey
Coloration	-	-
bright plumage	male birds	courtship
dull plumage	female birds	camouflage on nest
plumage change	owl, ptarmigan	seasonal camouflage

CLOSURE:
I want you to design an original bird, one well adapted to its habitat. Decide where your bird will live, what it will eat, what type mobility it will have and its sex. Using the list of adaptations, draw or sculpt your original bird and write a short report including the name of the bird, the food sources, the habitat, the lifestyle, the list of adaptations, the reasons for the adaptations and the advantages provided by the adaptations. (pause for activity, then involve the class with individual demonstrations and reports)

The following enrichments apply to all classroom connectors in Content Objective 1.00.

ENRICHMENT:

1. "I'm Thirsty." Project Wild (Secondary)

(The students will be able to make inferences about the importance of adaptation in order for wildlife and other animals to survive by using data provided to perform mathematical calculations and make inferences.)

2. "Muskox Maneuvers." Project Wild (Secondary)

(The student will evaluate the effectiveness of some adaptation in the predator/prey relationships, describe the importance of predator/prey relationships as limiting factors in wildlife populations by simulating muskoxen and wolves in a role play activity.)

3. "Fashion A Fish." Project Wild (Aquatic)

(The students will be able to describe adaptation of fish to their environments, describe how adaptation can help fish survive in their habitat and interpret the importance of adaptation on fish by designing a variety of fish adapted for various aquatic habitats.)

4. "Aquatic Roots." Project Wild (Aquatic)

(Students will be able to trace the origins of various species of local aquatic animals/plants, categorize them into native and exotic species, and evaluate the appropriateness of introducing new species by using reference materials to research various aquatic plants and animals to find out if they are natives or exotics.)

5. Insert information on Single Population, Geographic Isolation, and Reproductive Isolation

GLOSSARY:

adaptation - the process in which a species becomes better suited to survive in an environment

behavioral adaptation - a way of reacting to the environment or other organisms that have survival value

breeding population - a population of a particular species with whom breeding pairs tend to form

camouflage - concealment or distortion of the natural outlines of an organism by its colors and patterns

chromatophores - pigment-containing structures in the skins of fishes, frogs, and other animals that aid in color changes

countershading - a form of camouflage with the ventral side being lighter than the dorsal side

cryptic coloration - a form of camouflage that enables the organism to be hidden or

deception - an adaptation that helps an organism appear as something other than what he is disruptive

coloration - coloration of an organism that hides the true width and breath of an organism

genetic isolation - a population of a species that becomes isolated due to natural or unnatural barriers

mimicry - an adaptation whereby one organism mocks or mimics the behavior or coloration of another organism

morphological adaptation - those adaptations involving the structures of the organisms or their anatomy

physiological adaptation - those adaptations involving the metabolism of organisms

speciation - plants and animals can only breed with very similar plants and animals

species - a group of plants and animals that can breed together to produce viable, fertile offspring but that cannot do so with members outside that group

warning coloration (aposematic) - an adaptation whereby the organism is colored so as to warn possible predators away

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This is the time this file has been accessed since 11/16/96.

The University of Tennessee at Martin is not responsible for the information or views expressed here.

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