SALT LAKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE Department of English

NAME: Nathalie Torres

Course: Advance reading 0990 Section 006
Date: October 13, 2014
Assignment: Signature assignment. Chapter 1 A view of life
Section 1.1 Living things have adaptations

Writing summary signature assignment

Adaptations are modifications that makes organism to function in a particular environment. For
example, penguins have characteristics that help them to live in the Antarctic. They adopt complex
behaviors such as sliding across ice to conserve energy in order to adapt to the environment. They also
have an extra layer of feathers that form a waterproof coat and that keep them warm in cold water.
Unlike other birds, penguins have stubby flattened wings suitable for swimming. Despite they use their
flat feet to walk in land, these, along with the tales serve as rudders in the water. Their eggs are, usually
one or two, are carried on their feet where they are protected by a pouch of skin, which also helps the
birds to huddle together for warmth while incubating eggs. (Elder & Cortina, 5)

On earth, organisms respond to ever changing environments by developing new adaptations. This
adaptations provide the framework for evolutionary change. Evolution is a way in which populations and
organisms change over the course of many generations to become more suited for their environments.
Organisms have the ability to persist, despite a changing environment. (Elder & Cortina, 5)

How are living things adapted to their environment? The way they look, the way they behave, the way
they are built, or the way of life makes them suited to survive and reproduce in their habitats. For
example, giraffes have very long necks so that they can eat tall vegetation, which other animals cannot
reach. The eyes of cats are like slits. That makes it possible for the eyes cats to adjust to both bright
light, when the slits are narrow, and to very dim light, when the slits are wide. (AGI American
Geoscience Institute. How are living things adapted to their environment? www.k5 geosource.org)

In biology, an adaptation, also call adaptive trait, is a trait with a current functional role in the life history
of an organism that is maintained and evolved by means of natural selection. Adaptation refers to both
the current state of being adapted and to the dynamic evolutionary process that leads to the
adaptation. Adaptations contribute to the fitness and survival of individuals. Organisms face a
succession of environmental challenges as they grow and develop and are equipped with an adaptive
plasticity as the phenotype of traits develop in response to the imposed conditions. The developmental
norm of reaction for any given trait is essential to the correction of adaptation as it affords a kind of
biological insurance or resilience to varying environments. (Wikipedia, the evolutionary process)

REFLECTION: It is interesting how living things have the ability to adapt to any environment by the
process of natural selection, the nature of the species gradually changes to become adapted to the
niche (the overall roll of a species in its environment). Species become suitable to their environment and
if they become very well adapted, and if the environment doesnt change, species can exist for a very
long time before they become extinct. An excellent example of an animal evolving to fill a niche
is seen in the evolution of horses. Many fossils of different kinds of horses have been
discovered, and paleontologists think that the earliest ancestor of the modern horse lived in
North America more than 50 million years ago. This animal was a small padded-foot forest
animal about the size of a dog. If you saw one next to a modern horse, you might not even
think the two were related! As time passed, the climate of North America became drier, and
the vast forest started to shrink. Grasses were evolving, and the amount grassland was
increasing. Horses adapted to fill this new grassland niche. They grew taller, and their legs
and feet became better adapted to sprinting in the open grasslands. Their eyes also adapted
to be further back on their heads to help them to see more of the area around them. Each
of these adaptations helped the evolving grassland horses to avoid predators. Their teeth
also changed to be better adapted to grinding tough grassland vegetation. (AGI American

Geoscience Institute. How are living things adapted to their environment? www.k5 geosource.org)

References:
Elder, Janet. Joe, Cortina. A view of Life. Opening doors. 7th ed. McGraw-Hill, 2009. 5. Print.
AGI American Geoscience Institute. How are living things adapted to their environment? <www.k5
geosource.org>
Wikipedia. The evolutionary process.