Prelim Biology: Structural, Physiological and Behavioural Adaptations

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Written by Simon Tang.

Key Points Summary

• An adaptation is a feature of an organism/species that helps it survive in its environment.
• Structural Adaptations are related to the physical characteristics of an organism and how they promote survival.
• Physiological Adaptations are related to how physical characteristics of an organism function in a way that promotes survival. 
• Behavioural Adaptations refer to the way an organism responds to environmental stimuli. 

Content

What are Adaptations?

An adaptation is a feature of an organism/species that helps it survive in its environment. 

An example is a lion’s teeth. If you imagine a lion’s face, you’d probably imagine it’s big mouth and sharp teeth. These teeth help it bite and eat its prey, so they help the lion to survive. 

Imagine if they didn’t have those teeth. They wouldn’t be able to bite into anything, and they would starve. Thus, without this adaptation, they would not be able to survive.

With that in mind, what are the different types of adaptations?

What are the different types of adaptations?

They can be divided into three categories:

• Structural Adaptations are related to the physical characteristics of an organism and how they promote survival. These don’t change

• • The lion’s teeth mentioned previously are examples of structural adaptations. 

• • Another can be found in the red kangaroo. They have blood vessels in their forearms that are very close to the skin. This physical feature helps to promote the loss of heat from the blood through the skin in warm weather, as heat from the blood can more easily leave the body.

• Physiological Adaptations are related to how physical characteristics of an organism function in a way that promotes survival. These are often cellular processes, or the way that an internal physical feature changes.

• • During warm weather, the blood vessels in the forearms of a red kangaroo dilate (grow wider) so that the blood runs even closer to the skin, to increase heat loss. Note that this adaptation is not the fact that kangaroos have blood vessels in their forearms (this is structural), but the fact that it can change size depending on the temperature.

• Behavioural Adaptations refer to the way an organism responds to environmental stimuli. 

• • For example, red kangaroos lick their forearms in warm weather, which helps with dissipating heat through evaporative cooling.

Conclusion

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