Move, Adapt, or Die

We teach our students that animals have three choices when their habitats change (the plants have fewer choices); move, adapt, or die!  One of the major teaching points of our Animal Compound Leason is "animal adaptations". It's a great opportunity for the students to see some of our native Florida animals, albeit in a zoo-type setting.  

Time permitting, I like to start the lesson with some skull replicas of the animals we have, before they ever see or know what animals are in the compound.  We look at the teeth and discuss how they are tools and what each type of tool (tooth) does.  

My current group started a great conversation about the canine teeth. You see, some of them wanted to call them fangs, and others wanted to call them tusks.  They were definitely thinking about these tools and I sent them home with the task of finding out the differences!  

Of course, they did not remember to do it for Friday so now they have the weekend to figure it out (and any of them who read this blog will know)!   Canines are the elongated teeth of mammals, usually ones that eat meat (omnivores and carnivores), but canines can be found in fruit bats which are herbivores.  Fangs are usually considered to be long canines in mammals and are used for grasping, biting and fighting.  Snakes also have fangs but these are used for injecting venom and spiders have fangs as well!  Humans have canines but these are not considered to be fangs because they are so short (unless you are a vampire)!

Tusks are teeth that grow thoughout the life of an animal.  In the case of pigs, walruses, and warthogs, the teeth are in fact elongated canines.  The largest tusks, those of the elephant, are actually incisors!  The narwhal is one of the few animals with a single tusk rather than a pair of them.  

Animal adaptations are so cool and there is so much to cover, but this is a great introduction for students who are out exploring and come across the skull of an animal!  My scout groups frequently bring me bones and skulls to look at, much like cats who proudly bring mice to their humans!  It is so awesome and always exciting detective work for all of us!

Here is a picture of a skull they found on a campout in a Pine Flatwoods in March.  The best way to identify this skull is by counting the number of teeth (top and bottom).   There are 50 teeth in this skull, confirming that this little critter was an opossum, the record holder for the most teeth of any North American land mammal!  Nice fangs!