New Species Discovered!

Transcription

1 New Species Discovered! Do you remember different ways organisms have adapted to their environments? You can always go back and review at any time. Adaptation plays an important part in biodiversity. As you know, animals are specially adapted to their environment, or ecosystem. Where they live, what they eat, how they move, and how they relate to other species all influence what any animal looks like and how it behaves. These things also influence whether or not an animal survives. There are good reasons why whales did not evolve to live in forests and why giraffes cannot fly! For this activity, you will select a specific kind of environment, create an animal that is perfectly adapted to living there, and then think about how it would cope with changes to its environment. Remember that animals are incredibly diverse creatures and can range from invertebrates to vertebrates. What you need (you have two options on your first task): 1. You can create a replica of your animal using craft supplies, lego,or other found objects Household or craft items Glue Scissors Markers or paint 2. You can draw a picture of your creature paper pencil pencil crayons What to do: PART 1 Getting started 1. Listed below are a choice of four environments. Choose one of the following: o A sandy, wet place where there is very little wave action o A rugged coastal area with constant wave action o A forested area where there are many persons o Tall grassland, where it is very dry and hot

2 2. Design an animal that would be well-suited to living in that particular environment. Use the materials you collected or begin drawing your new custom-made species. Here are some important questions to keep in mind as you develop your design. o How does your animal move? (e.g. long legs, short legs, climbing arms, fins) o How and what does it eat? (e.g. claws, teeth, large food and small food) o How does it breathe? (e.g. gills or lungs?) o How does it protect itself talk? (e.g.colours that blend in with the environment, anility to run fast, spikes and stingers) 3. Remember: Your creature needs to be linked to your scientific knowledge of adaptation and evolution. It cannot shoot lasers out of its eyes or suddenly grow metallic robot parts PART 2 Almost There! 4. To present your new found species, you need to decide how you will show what you know. If you drew your newly designed species, then you may want to continue with that method. Other options could include using PowerPoint or Photo Story or even creating a diorama. The following needs to be included in your presentation. o An illustration or example of your animal s environment that you chose in Part 1. You should include other appropriate plants or animals in your environment rocks, soil, and water. Leave room for you to place your animal in this scene. Feel free to draw an action picture of your animal running from a predator, eating, or looking after its young. o Next, you need to add your animal into the picture. Give it a name that describes what it looks like or what it does (for example, a thorn-headed creeper, or a red-footed suction beetle). Include arrows and detailed descriptions of the special ways your animal has adapted to the environment you ll have to be creative with this step if you chose to create a diorama (you could attach the labels descriptions on a separate piece of paper). Adaptations should answer the questions from Part 1: Task #2

3 PART 3 Last One! 5. Consider how your animal might be able to adapt to changes in its environment in the attached chart. Could it survive? If so, how? Remember, animals can only develop small differences in their physical characteristics and behavior over generations of time = many many many years. When you have completed this activity, please submit it for marks.

4 Answer the following questions in point form (or record them if you like) Designer Species 1. Your animal s main food source disappears. What happens to your animal now? 2. The average temperature increases by 5 degrees Celcius in one year. How will that affect your animal? HINT: 5 degrees doesn t seem like much. Within one day, it s not. But, if the overall temperature of your animal s environment increases on average that amount, there would be noticeable consequences. Even an average temperature increase of 2 degree will make it difficult for some of the other organisms in the area to survive for example, plants. Ocean levels would rise meaning available land would be affected. Can you think of other possible consequences that might occur? How will your animal deal with all of this?

5 Humans move into your animal s environment and build roads and houses over half of the area in which it lives. What happens to your animal? Remember: design your creature for a specific environment give it a suitable name create an example of the environment label and describe the animal's features complete the follow-up questions