The body shapes of these two very different animals (dolphins and fish) are so similar
because they both evolved to deal with the drag caused by moving
quickly through water. The shape of fish and dolphins is an analogous
similarity brought about by convergent evolution.
Analogous similarities arise from the convergent evolution caused
by sharing similar ways of life. We see this type of evolution at many different levels of evolution.
I'm sure you can describe an animal that has adapted to some type of
lifestyle.
Write down the mammal that best fits these descriptions.
- A plant eater with large ears that allow it to hear sneaky
predators and has long hind legs adapted for hopping away from
the predator once detected.
- An "arboreal glider" - a mammal that uses membranes
along the sides of its body to glide from tree to tree.
- A worm eater with strong, paddle like arms adapted for digging
so it can tunnel easily through the soil.
- An ant and termite eater that has evolved a long sticky tongue
to pick up its insect prey and a thick fur to protect it from
being bitten by those insects.
Once you have written down all four species,
go to the next page and compare your answers to mine.
This work was created by Dr Jamie Love and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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