Built to Live Here

Today you will learn how different animals and plants living in the same place survive with their own special body parts.

Every living thing has structures, which are body parts like beaks, legs, roots, or fur. Each structure has a function, which is the job that part does. A bird's wings have the job of flying. A tree's roots have the job of soaking up water. When a structure helps a living thing stay alive where it lives, we call it an adaptation.

Think about a pond at a park in Texas. Many different living things share that one pond. A great blue heron stands in the shallow water. It has long, thin legs for wading and a long, sharp beak for stabbing fish. A pond turtle lives in the same water, but it has webbed feet for paddling and a hard shell that protects it from animals that want to eat it. A catfish swims below them. It has gills to take oxygen from the water and whiskers that help it feel food in the muddy bottom.

All three animals live in the same pond. All three need food, oxygen, and safety. But each one gets those things in a different way, because each one has different structures. The heron does not need gills. The catfish does not need long legs. Their bodies match the way they live.

Plants do this too. Cattails around the pond have tall, skinny leaves and roots that hold on in soggy mud. A nearby oak tree has a thick trunk and deep roots that pull water from far under the ground. Both plants live near the pond, but they are built differently.

Try it: A duck has wide, webbed feet, and a hawk has sharp, curved claws. Can you explain how each foot helps that bird get food?