ECOLOGICAL ADAPTATION OF ANIMALS TO DIFFERENT ENVIRONMENTS

Every organism has a unique ecosystem within which it lives. This ecosystem is its natural habitat.
This is where the basic needs of the organism to survive are met: food, water, shelter from the
weather and place to breed its young. All organisms need to adapt to their habitat to be able to
survive.

This means adapting to be able to survive the climatic conditions of the ecosystem, predators, and
other species that compete for the same food and space. An adaptation is a modification or change
in the organism's body or behaviour that helps it to survive.

An animal's environment consists of many different things. The climate, the kinds of food plants
that grow in it, other animals that may be predators or competitors- the animal must learn to adapt
to each of these factors in order to survive. With increasing population growth and human activity
that disturbs the natural habitat, animals must learn to adapt to these kind of threats as well.

Pisces
Pisces (fish) are aquatic vertebrates. They make up more than half of all vertebrate species. Most
fish species are cold-blooded; however, one species, the opah (Lampris guttatus), is warm-
blooded. Fish, the member of the Animalia Kingdom is classified into Phylum Chordata and
Vertebrata Subphylum.

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Morphology of Fish

Figure 10: Morphology of fish

General Characteristics

Unlike mammals, fish are cold-blooded. This means that they do not maintain a constant internal
body temperature; instead, their temperature is greatly influenced by their environment. True fish
have a backbone and fins. Most also breathe with gills and have scales that cover their bodies. The
general characteristics and adaptive features of fishes are outlined below.

Fins
The location, size and shape of fins are often associated with different body shapes. Fins serve
many functions. Pectoral and pelvic fins are used for steering, balance and braking. Dorsal fins
(located on the back) keep fish from rolling over in the water. The tail or caudal fin helps fish
move in their habitats. Fast-swimming fish have narrow-forked tails that provide the thrust needed
to speed through the water. Slower-swimming fish have a wide, square-shaped tail that helps them
swim around rocks or reefs and catch prey.

Scales
These overlap in rows and help protect the fish against injuries and infection. In some species (for
example, puffer fish) the skin covers the scales—creating a living surface. Their edges are jagged

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and sharp in some fish, and smooth and rounded in others. Over the scales, fish secrete a mucous
covering to further protect against infection. The mucus traps and immobilizes bacteria and
viruses, keeping them from entering the fish’s body. This covering also helps reduce friction,
allowing the fish to move easily through the water.

Scales protect fishes and increase swimming efficiency. The type, size and number of scales can
tell much about a fish’s lifestyle. Fast swimmers typically have fine scales (e.g., trout). Fish that
don’t swim a lot and live in quiet water have more coarse scales (e.g., perch and ocean sunfish).
Fish that are slow moving and bottom dwelling may have armor-like bony plates (e.g., seahorses,
sturgeons, some catfishes).

Gills
In order to breathe underwater, fish have developed special organs called gills. The gills, found on
the side of the fish just behind the head, contain thousands of capillaries, or tiny blood vessels.
Water is constantly pumped over the gills, which filter the oxygen out of the water and directly
into the fish’s blood. A gill cover, called the operculum, is a flexible bony plate that helps protect
the sensitive gills. Gills are also important for excretion of waste products, particularly ammonia,
from the fish’s bloodstream.

Swim Bladder
Fish have a unique internal organ known as the swim bladder or air bladder. It is usually found in
the abdomen, and it helps fish move up or down in the water. By adjusting the amount of air in the
bladder, fish can adjust the depth at which they float without continuously having to swim. In some
fish, the swim bladder is also used to produce sounds. Members of the shark or ray family
(elasmobranches) do not have a swim bladder.

Lateral Line
Most fishes have a line of specialized cells along their bodies. Sometimes the line appears like a
series of tiny holes. This system is called a “lateral line” and it helps a fish to sense movement and
vibration. This allows a fish to judge water depth, navigate through obstacles, orient itself in the
water column and even detect prey and predators. Schooling fish use the lateral line to group
themselves and maintain a school formation

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Body Shape
The shape of a fish helps it hunt for prey, avoid predators and move through its habitat. A torpedo-
shaped body increases a fish’s swimming speed. Most fish with this body shape live in open water
and are excellent swimmers. Elongated fish may hide under or wrap around rocks or coral. Flatfish
have flattened bodies. They lie on their sides on the seafloor with only their eyes protruding from
the sand, hiding until their prey swim nearby.

Mouth
The design and location of a fish’s mouth indicates how it obtains food. If the mouth is on the
underside of its body, it feeds on the bottom in sand or mud. When a fish’s upturned mouth is
slanted toward the top of its body, it’s a surface feeder. If it has a big, wide mouth, it gulps its food.
Fish with tiny teeth may nibble, while some shark species have rows of sharp teeth that bite and
tear.

Eyes
Eye size depends on how and where a fish captures food. The position of a fish’s eyes identifies
where it spends most of its time. When a fish has one eye on each side of its body, it usually swims
in the water column and above the seafloor. If both eyes are on top or on one side of its body, it
stays on or near the bottom. The eyes of some species look upward while others look downward.
This helps them find prey or sense predators above or below their body.

Colors and Patterns

Stripes, spots and coloration provide fish camouflage that helps make them less noticeable to
predators and prey. Some colors, such as yellow or orange, are a warning that the animal is
poisonous. In addition, certain colors are invisible in the ocean depths, allowing the fish to blend
in with its surroundings. False eyespots located on a fish’s body might confuse potential predators.
Fish with countershading are dark on the top or dorsal side of their bodies and lighter underneath
on the ventral side. This makes them more difficult for predators to see when looking down on
them from the surface or looking up from the ocean depths.

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Amphibians
Amphibians are ectothermic, tetrapod vertebrates of the class Amphibia. They inhabit a wide
variety of habitats, with most species living within terrestrial, fossorial, arboreal or
freshwater aquatic ecosystems. The living ones
are frogs (including toads), salamanders (including newts) and caecilians.

Three primary orders of Amphibia within the Subclass Lissamphibia

1. Caudata (Urodela) – Salamanders

2. Anura (Salientia) - Frogs and toads
3. Apoda (Gymnophiona) - Caecilians

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Morphology

Modern amphibians are united by several unique traits. They typically have a moist skin and rely
heavily on cutaneous (skin-surface) respiration. They possess a double-channeled hearing system,
green rods in their retinas to discriminate hues, and pedicellate (two-part) teeth. Some of these
traits may have also existed in extinct groups.

Members of the three extant orders differ markedly in their structural appearance. Frogs and toads
are tailless and somewhat squat with long, powerful hind limbs modified for leaping. In contrast,
caecilians are limbless, wormlike, and highly adapted for a burrowing
existence. Salamanders and newts have tails and two pairs of limbs of roughly the same size;
however, they are somewhat less specialized in body form than the other two orders.

Figure 11: Morphology of an Amphibia

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The general characteristics of amphibians are as follows;

1. They are tetrapods (4 limbs). These facilitate moving about on land - these limbs evolved
from the pectoral and pelvic fins

2. Their skin is thin, soft, glandular and magid (lack scales except in the caecilians) - skin of
caecilians with scales similar to those of fish

3. They are ectothermic (they have limited ability to regulate their body temperature; their
temperature thus depends on the ambient temperature

4. They are both gill and lung breathers - usually gills in the larval stage, replaced by lungs
in the adult; cutaneous respiration in many

5. They have a three-chambered heart with two atria and one ventricle

6. The skin is smooth, thin, hairless, porous and rarely scaled. The skin contains both mucus
glands and poison glands

7. Amphibians are the only vertebrates to undergo complete metamorphosis.

Adaptive Features
For amphibians, limbs and lungs were two of the most important adaptations as the former helped
them move around without having to depend on the buoyancy of water, and latter replaced the gills
to facilitate respiration.

While the bodies of various amphibian species are specially designed to help them swim, their
powerful hind legs help them take large leaps and change direction with utmost ease when it comes
to movement on the land. On the other hand, their typical color pattern - with dark body and light
underside, plays a crucial role in camouflage in water as well as on the land.

The thin and moist skin that they sport is also an adaptation which facilitates processes like
cutaneous respiration and osmosis in these species. Even though amphibians usually inhabit moist
areas, the chances of water loss due to evaporation cannot be ruled out, and that's where their skin
- which is specifically designed to minimize the amount of water loss, comes into play. Other than
inhabiting moist environment, some species also resort to nocturnal lifestyle to minimize water

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loss. As amphibians are cold blooded animals, they cannot withstand cold environment and hence
go into hibernation during the winter season.

Eyes positioned on the top of the head don't just facilitate a wide angle view for these species, but
also help them stay in the water with their eyes just above the water surface. This proves to be an
important adaptation when it comes to hunting as well as defense. Some amphibians release toxins
from their skin which is yet another defense mechanism in some species of amphibians meant to
keep predators at bay. At the same time, they sport a transparent eyelid which helps them see
underwater with relative ease. While their eyes are considerably large, their mouths are even larger
in proportion to their size - an adaptation which helps them catch and eat large prey with relative
ease. Even the tongue of some amphibians is designed in such a manner that they can flick it out,
grab the prey and pull it back to their mouth when hunting.

Arboreal
Arboreal animals are creatures which spend the majority of their lives in trees. They eat, sleep and
play in the tree canopy. There are thousands of species that live in trees, including monkeys, koalas,
possums, sloths, various rodents, parrots, chameleons, geckos, birds, tree snakes and a variety of
insects. Many animals have evolved special adaptations to aid their arboreal lifestyles.

Morphology

Mammals
Sloths inhabit the forests of Central and South America and have special stomachs to help them
obtain nutrients from leaves as well as curved claws to help them grip onto branches. The arboreal
red squirrel, which inhabits both deciduous (trees with leaves) and coniferous (trees with needles)
trees of North America have a bushy tail to help with balance and claws to help them grip. They
eat cones, seeds and insects.

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Plate 1: A Sloth and a North American Red Squirrel

Marsupials
The marsupial koalas are found in Australia. They survive off of eucalyptus trees. They have
special paws and claws to help them climb and jump from tree to tree. Like the sloth, they have
special adaptations to their stomach to help them obtain nutrients from a leaf-based diet.

Plate 2: Koala

Birds
Another North American species, the pileated woodpecker, lives in coniferous and deciduous
forests. It uses its beak to drill holes in trees where it builds its nests.

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Plate 3: Pileated woodpecker

Adaptive Features of Arboreal Animals

Limbs and Tails
Many arboreal animals have elongated limbs that allow them to swing efficiently from branch to
branch. Many monkey species show this anatomical adaptation. Several creatures have long tails
(called prehensile tails) that can grasp branches and act as an extra limb. Spider monkeys, possums
and chameleons are examples of animals that use their tails to help move and stabilize themselves
in the tree canopy.

Feet and Claws

It is important that animals living in trees can grip well. Some arboreal animals, like squirrels, have
ankle joints that are highly flexible, allowing the foot to point backwards so claws can hook into
the tree bark when they are coming down the tree. Many arboreal animals have claws to grip into
the trees, while others have adhesive pads like tree frogs and geckos. Primates have hairless
fingertips for gripping, and chameleons have mitten-like feet to grasp branches.

Movement
Moving through trees presents different challenges to moving on the ground. Arboreal species tend
to have a low center of mass to minimize the chance of toppling when climbing, and some have a
crouched posture. They tend to have a diagonal sequence gait to maximize balance. Most arboreal
mammals extend their limbs further forward and backward during movement, taking longer steps
than their non-arboreal counterparts.

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Size
The size of an arboreal animal influences the places it can go. Smaller animals can move through
more cluttered habitat and can access smaller branches that will not take the weight of bigger
animals. This can be an advantage in food gathering. Size and weight are also important for animals
that use a gliding motion to move from tree to tree. Small species like bats often hang from
branches, but so can larger animals like sloths, which achieve stability by hanging from their
powerful claws.

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