Topic Summaries

Adaptations

GCSE > Biology > WJEC > GCSE Biology Topic Summaries > Species and classification > Adaptations
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Science skills: Measuring results

  • Organisms have features called adaptations that enable them to survive in the conditions in which they normally live.
    • Structural adaptations are physical features (e.g. tigers have sharp teeth to allow them to kill their prey).
    • Behavioural adaptations are behaviours that benefit an organism (a courtship display to attract a mate).
    • Functional adaptations are physiological processes organisms complete to aid survival (e.g. producing venom to deter predators from killing them).
  • Adaptations allow organisms to outcompete others and provide them with an evolutionary advantage.
  • Organisms called extremophiles live in environments that are very extreme.
    • Extreme conditions include extremely hot or cold temperatures, high pressure or salt concentration, and highly acidic or alkaline environments.
    • For example, bacteria living in deep-sea hydrothermal vents are extremophiles evolved to feed on the sulfur compounds released by the vents, toxic to almost all other life.

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