Adaptation

Traps in Adaptation

• Transfers a feature to the wrong organism group
  Keep a feature grid: rows = groups (bacteria, fungi, mosses, ferns, conifers, flowering plants, insects, fish, mammals), columns = wall, nucleus, gas exchange, reproduction. Check the option against the right row.
• Takes one contributing factor as the whole answer
  Watch for 'only', 'just', 'mainly'. Ask: is this the MAIN reason, or one contributor? If it would need other things to work (plasma proteins need platelets), it is incomplete.
• Animal classification errors
  Insects: 3 body parts, 6 legs, usually wings. Arachnids: 2 parts, 8 legs. Crustaceans: 2 pairs antennae, hard carapace. Fish: gills, scales, fins. Amphibians: moist skin, larval stage in water. Reptiles: dry scales, leathery eggs. Birds: feathers, beak. Mammals: hair, mammary glands.
• Adaptation misconceptions
  Xerophytes: thick cuticle, sunken stomata, reduced leaves (cactus spines). Hydrophytes: air spaces (aerenchyma), stomata on upper surface (water lily). Camels: store fat in hump, concentrated urine.
• Uses an everyday idea instead of the biology
  Translate everyday words into the textbook definition before choosing. If the only reason an option attracts you is its name or looks, test it against the definition in the stem.
• Explains by need or purpose
  Variation comes first (by chance mutation and sexual reproduction); selection then favours what already exists. Replace 'it needs to' with 'individuals that happened to have it survived and reproduced more'.
• Reverses a direction, order or effect
  Before answering, say the process out loud in order with arrows (receptor → sensory → relay → motor → effector; lungs → pulmonary vein → left atrium). Then ask: does my option point the same way? If an option is the mirror image of a fact you know, it is a trap.