Locomotion in Organisms (DP IB Biology)

Reasons for Locomotion

• Locomotion is the movement or the ability to move from one place to another

• Locomotion is important to a range of organisms for a variety of reasons

• This trait is particularly important in the Animal kingdom

Example of Reasons for Locomotion Table

Adaptations for Swimming

• Aquatic animals are adapted for a specific movement called swimming

• Marine mammals in particular have many adaptations that make them excellent swimmers

  • Marine mammals might include dolphins or whales

• These mammals have all evolved from ancestral land animals that mean they are now capable of surviving underwater  

  • Streamlining of their bodies allows marine mammals to move with ease through relatively viscous water with ease and great speeds

  • Front limbs have been adapted to form flippers which are used mainly for steering; rear legs have been lost altogether to help with streamlining

  • Tails have adapted to form a fluke which is capable of up and down movement and are used for propulsion of the marine mammal

  • Changes to airways by the evolution of a blowhole allows periodic breathing between dives; blowholes can be sealed between dives so that water does not enter the airways

Adaptations of marine mammals diagram

Marine mammals have evolved many adaptions from the previous land mammals they once were