On Friday, January 9th, our class had the opportunity to Skype with the Buffalo Bill Nature Center in Yellowstone Park (check out their website by clicking here)! The live tour of the museum was amazing; we saw many animals native to Wyoming and learned a lot about the habitats in Yellowstone.
The curators of the museum talked a lot about animal adaptations, as well. Here are some amazing facts that we learned:
Moose antlers can grow up to an inch a day
Wolves have webbed feet so they can run on top of the snow (like built-in snowshoes)
Antler are made of keratin (like hair) but antlers are made of bone and fall off
The Yellow River earned it's name from the high amount of sulfur in the rocks which gives the area a yellow color
Rams have an air pocket in their skull (like an airbag in a car) to protect their brain from when they charge into other rams
The fastest land animal in North America is the pronghorn (it can run 60 miles per hour!)
This ties in with the MA Life Science Standards: 6. Give examples of how inherited characteristics may change over time as adaptations to changes in the environment that enable organisms to survive, e.g., shape of beak or feet, placement of eyes on head, length of neck, shape of teeth, color.
7. Give examples of how changes in the environment (drought, cold) have caused some plants and animals to die or move to new locations (migration).
Thank you to Mrs. Klipfel for finding this wonderful opportunity!
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