Animal Adaptation Essay

Plants and animals have made changes in their habitats as they have transitioned from water environments to land environments. This alteration requires the organisms to adapt to their new environments in order to survive and reproduce. These evolutionary transitions eventually led up to alterations in means of respiration, ways to prevent water loss, water dependent reproduction, and structural transformations. Amphibians evolved into reptiles and eventually into birds and mammals, being able to survive on land instead of water with the help of their adaptations. Green algae evolved into land plants that were able to support themselves and carry out photosynthesis with the use of the gas in the atmosphere.
One challenge that plants and animals …show more content…
It is important for the amphibian not to lose water in order for their skin to not become dry, resulting in the death of the animal. This transition from a water-filled environment to a land environment causes the skin of the amphibian to dry out. To prevent this water loss from taking place, their wet skin was developed into dry, watertight skin. The animals remain in moist environments so that their skin does not dry out. Furthermore, scales developed in reptiles as the cells on the surface filled with …show more content…
This surface is relatively impermeable which essentially doesn’t allow water loss in the plant to take place. Additionally, it prevents them from acquiring viruses and bacterial infections. Another structure that was adapted to prevent the drying out of the plant are the stomata, which allow water to diffuse out of the plant as they close. This adaptation is also important because plants need water to undergo photosynthesis in order to produce food for energy. For example, pines leaves have a thick cuticle and depressed stomata in order to hinder water loss, which is essential due to the colder environments they live in that make it hard for their roots to obtain