Year 7 Science · Unit 1 · Lesson 16

Adaptations

Challenge Worksheet

Name

Date

Class

Learning Goals

Classify a complex animal behaviour using the correct adaptation type and scientific reasoning.
Predict ecological consequences when an adaptation becomes mismatched to a changing environment.
Assess whether natural selection can act quickly enough to rescue a species under rapid environmental change.

Go Deeper

What if…?

Scenario

Climate change is shifting the timing of Australian seasons. In the NSW alpine region, the mountain pygmy possum (Burramys parvus) relies on hibernating through winter when food is scarce — its heart rate drops from around 300 beats per minute to as few as 2, and its body temperature falls to near 2°C. However, warmer winter temperatures are causing possums to wake from hibernation 3–4 weeks earlier each decade, before their main food source — the bogong moth (Agrotis infusa) — arrives from lowland regions. The bogong moth migrates to alpine areas each spring to escape lowland heat, but this migration is also being affected by changing temperatures.

Using what you know from this lesson, answer all three parts below.

Challenge 4 marks

(a) Classify the mountain pygmy possum's hibernation as structural, behavioural or physiological. Justify your classification with at least two pieces of evidence from the scenario.

(b) Predict two consequences for the mountain pygmy possum population if it continues waking 3–4 weeks before the bogong moth arrives. Use scientific reasoning in your answer.

(c) Natural selection can eventually produce new adaptations. Assess whether natural selection is likely to help the mountain pygmy possum adapt quickly enough to this problem. In your answer, refer to the speed of natural selection and the generation time of the possum (it lives up to 12 years and reproduces slowly).

Show What You Know

1. The scenario describes a "phenological mismatch" — when an animal's behaviour or physiology becomes out of step with its environment. Using the three types of adaptation, explain why physiological adaptations like hibernation are particularly hard for a species to change quickly in response to rapid climate shifts. Include the concept of inheritance in your answer.

Challenge 4 marks

2. A conservation scientist proposes two management options: (A) relocate some possums to lower-altitude sites where bogong moths arrive earlier, or (B) artificially cool the alpine habitat to maintain current hibernation triggers. For each option, explain one way it could help the possum and one significant limitation. Use your understanding of how adaptations work.

Challenge 4 marks

Wrap Up

In one sentence, what was the main idea of this lesson?