Adaptations: How Traits Help Organisms Survive — Reading Comprehension

An adaptation is a trait that helps an organism survive in its environment. These traits can be physical features, like thick fur or sharp claws, or behaviors, like hunting at night or migrating to warmer places. Adaptations happen through the process of natural selection—when helpful traits become more common in a species over many generations.

Animals and plants live in all kinds of environments, and each one has its own challenges. In a cold, snowy place, animals with thick fur are more likely to survive and reproduce. Over time, most animals in that environment will have thick fur. In deserts, plants like cacti have thick stems and waxy coatings to store water and reduce evaporation. These traits help them live with little rainfall.

Adaptations don’t happen overnight. They appear slowly, as organisms with helpful traits survive and pass those traits on to their offspring. This is why giraffes have long necks—to reach leaves high in trees—and why fish have fins and gills to live underwater.

Not every trait is an adaptation. Only traits that improve survival or reproduction in a specific environment are considered adaptations. Traits that don’t help—or even hurt—an organism’s chances of surviving may disappear over time through natural selection.

Understanding adaptations helps explain how different species are so well-suited to where they live. It also helps students connect how natural selection shapes living things over time.

Fun Fact: The Arctic fox has thick fur in winter that turns white to blend in with snow—and a shorter coat in summer that turns brown to match the rocks and grass!

What is an adaptation?

How do adaptations develop?

What is an example of a physical adaptation?

What helps a cactus survive in the desert?

Why do giraffes have long necks?

What happens to traits that don’t help survival?

What is the main idea of the passage?

If a rabbit lives in a snowy area, what trait might help it survive?