🧬 Natural Selection

🎯 How to Play:

Click cards on the left to flip them over. Match each creature with its ideal environment. Find all 6 pairs to win!

🎯 Pairs to Find (1/2):

💡 Adaptations:

🐻‍❄️ Polar Bear: Thick white fur for snow camouflage, blubber for insulation in extreme cold

🐪 Camel: Stores water in hump, thick eyelashes shield eyes from sand storms

🐠 Fish: Gills extract oxygen from water, streamlined fins for swimming

🎯 Pairs to Find (2/2):

💡 Adaptations:

🐵 Monkey: Strong limbs for climbing trees, prehensile tail for balance in canopy

🐧 Penguin: Waterproof feathers keep dry, flippers designed for underwater swimming

🌵 Cactus: Thick stems store water, sharp spines reduce water loss and deter predators

🧬 What is Natural Selection?

Adaptation: Traits that help organisms survive in specific environments. Like polar bear's white fur or cactus water storage.

Variation: Different individuals have different traits. This diversity helps species survive when conditions change.

Survival of the Fittest: Organisms with traits matching their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce.

🔍 Key Insight:

Natural selection is nature's way of "choosing" which traits continue. Helpful traits spread, unhelpful ones disappear!

🌍 Environmental Challenges:

Each environment creates unique survival challenges:

❄️ Arctic: Extreme cold requires thick insulation

🏜️ Desert: Water scarcity demands conservation

🌊 Ocean: Requires breathing and moving underwater

🌴 Rainforest: Dense canopy needs climbing ability

⏰ Evolution Over Time:

Natural selection works over many generations. Organisms with helpful traits survive longer and have more offspring.

🔬 Real Example:

Over millions of years, bears in Arctic regions developed white fur. Brown bears couldn't hide from prey in snow, so white-furred bears had more success!

💡 Remember:

Traits don't change during an organism's life. Evolution happens across generations as successful traits are inherited!