Contents

Why can't humans fly? 2

Size and shape 4
Why can't insects be dog-sized? 10
Why are ants so strong? 13
Why can fleas jump so far? 14
Why can't elephants jump? 16
Why can bears live through
a polar winter and flies can't? 18
,
t
.~WWhy
..hatdoabout
whales live longer than shrews?
us? 22
20

Evolution 24
Glossary 28
Index 29
Why can't humans fly? 30

Written by Sarah Fleming Illustrated by Wes Lowe

Collins
Humans are not the shape or size to fly . We don't have wings.
To have big enough and strong enough wings we'd need big
and strong enough muscles to flap them . To have big enough
muscles we'd need to have HUGE chests that stuck out
more than a metre.

Even if we were shaped to have wings, we couldn't fly unless we

changed in other ways. For a start, we're too big and heavy.
Like birds, we'd need to make our bones hollow to be light
enough to fly.

Just adding wings wouldn't allow us to fly. light, sleek head

We'd need to change our bodies too. -I to fly into wind
,_,.. i

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---} ~ ~ - \ -~-
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.
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,, ' ' huge chest for muscles
to flap wings
·,

light, hollow legs

tight, sleek clothes

Our shape and size controls to fly fast
what we can and can't do.

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3
 Giraffes live in the African sovonnoh .
....,.. Jlal

They compete for food with

other leaf-eaters, like a ntelope.
The advantage of having
a long neck is that a giraffe
can reach food that
others can't.

Tiny pond skaters can walk on

water to catch fallen insects.

! ". . I
5
An a1noeba has only one ::ell. Jt doesn't hove guts, eyes or
1

anything n1uch. It's so srnall that it doesn't have to breathe

or eat. Enough food and oxygen seep through the cell wall for
an a1noeba to live.

This ,-vouldn't work if it got any bigger. Amoebas have to be sm.all

to live the way they do.

1 millimetre

( an amoeba )

r
cell wall

... an amoeba changes shape

Food and oxygen seep to capture some food
·_ through the cell wall.
7
xygen can't flow very far down a trachea. Bigger insects
uldn 't get enough oxygen und would die. This way of
thing limits the size of insects.
 WhY ore ants so stroo g.:,
An advantage of being small is that you can be strong.
It's easier to lift your body weight if you're very light.
.
As animals get bigger, their weight increases ;.,,
_., I
~

much more than their strength. A muscle . .~

that is twice the size of another
muscle is not twice as strong.

Like most insects, ants are

mainly made of muscle.
Human bodies are full of
bones and organs like
brains and lungs. In fact,
humans are only about
40% muscle.

Leafcutter ants can lift 50

times their own body weight.
The strongest humans can't
lift even four times their
~~~ own weight.
 ....
iren

85
TORIN O 2011

Humans are heavier than fleas

and less of our weight is muscle,
so we can't jump very far at all.

15
A aw1•e
't\~ost a ni1nals jump upwards by bending their Jegs first so that
they can spring up. An elephant can 't do this. Its legs a re short,
strong and very thick. They're the size and shape they are to
cany its huge weight - about the same weight as 80 people.
Because of their shape they can't bend enough to make
a "spring" strong enough to jump.

Elephants don't need to jump - they can push down trees,

travel long distances and swim. And because they're so big
they don't have many predators. So for them, being large is
an advantage.
 Flies are too s1nall to cnny fot
to keep wan11 and they have
no fur. They get very cold.

~1any animals move to

warmer places, but flies
die in the winter cold.
Their eggs survive and hatch
in the spring.

caribou escaping the winter cold

in Alaska, USA

' ii

19
Big animals tend to live nt
0 slower pocc than srnull ones -
on elephant plods slowly,
whereas a shrew scurries quickly.
An elephant's heart beats 30 times
o n1inute, while a shrew's heart
beats 800 times per minute. 'gjl,w
You age with every heartbeat, , (ij tc.l~ ®If fft (jflj

so a shrew gets old much more

~(.f-11 ~~lmr.l7
~~~
quickly than an elephant.

Some animals don't follow

this rule. Usually they are small
animals that move very slowly • J • - BJ,0........,..,...,_

and have a slow heartbeat.

·H fit ea ~-~
Ir . tfil1~~
So, what's changed? Our bodies - especio lly our brains -
adapted over time. We stood up, got higger und beca me
cleverer. Adapting to su1v ive better is called evolution.

We learnt how to make fire, use tools and talk and we started
living longer. As well as adapting our bodies, we are the only
animal that has adapted our habitat. We have invented
medicines to keep us healthy, clothes and houses to keep us safe,
warm and dry. All these things have helped us to live longer.

We even invented a way to fly.

23
Horses were the size of dogs SS rnillion ycors ugo. They were
51
nall enough to duck ond hide in th eir forest huhitut.
over ti1ne, the cH1notc chon9ed and the forests
becon1e grosslond. Horses adapted by becoming bigger
so that they could travel faster and over longer distances.

a horse 55 million years ago

a horse today

25
some animals have not needed to adapt for a long time.
Crocodiles have not changed since Tyrannosaurus Rex lived,
65 million years ago, By then, crocodiles had already adapted
to their habitat so well that they stopped changing, They had
adapted to be strong, fast and sleek and they had no predators.

a fossil crocod ile from 65 million years ago

Most animals continue to adapt to survive better in their habitat,

or to fit into a changing habitat. This goes for humans too.
As the Earth changes around us, we need to evolve and change
· an d shape to suit our world.
so that we can be the best size
Index
amoeba 7 habitat 8, 10, 24, 25
birds 2, 3, 24 horses 25
brains 13, 23 humans 2, 3, 22,23, 24,27
crocodiles 27 insects 10, 11, 12, 13
Daiwin, Charles 24 oxygen 7, 10, 11
clephan~ 16, 17,20,21 muscles 3, 13, 14, 15
evolution 23, 24, 25, 26, 27 peacocks 6
fleas 14, 15, 16 polar bears 18
flies 19 shrew 20, 21
giraffes 5
WhY con fleas jump so for'!
fleas are almost completely made
of muscle, and they have a "spring"
coiled above their back legs.

Why can't elephants jump?

Because of their shape,
elephants can't bend enough
to make a "spring" strong
enough to jump.

Why do w hales live longer than shrew s?

You age with every heartbeat. Small animals'
hearts beat very quickly, so they age
more quickly than bigger animals.
 Returning to the book.
• Ask children to choose a chapter and ~nd as many answers a s possible to answer
the question that has been posed. Make a lis t of their suggestions and support
children to retrieve oll the possible answers.
• Look at the chart on p 20 . Discuss how the chart is organized, e.g. with the largest
animal that has the longest potential lifespan at th e top. Ask children to suggest
where some fa1Tliliar anin1als ,night be positioned to check their understanding,
e.g. a han1ster. Read p21 and discuss other examples of animals that might not
follow this rule, e.g. tortoise.
• Return to pp8- 9 . Discuss what a habitat is. Ask children to describe the habitat
shown, and how the creatures can live together there.
• Read pp30-31 together. As a group, discuss other ways each creature on the
spread has evolved to suit its habitat, e.g. elephants have evolved to be big so they
can travel long distances. Ask children to discuss other creatures in the book that
have evolved to suit their habitat, e.g. giraffes have long necks so they can reach
food that is high up.

Checking and moving on

• Ask children to select an
animal from the book to Polar Bears
research further using
other information sources. Polar bears are white
,,,-.... Help them to produce
information booklets
about their animal
and how it has adapted
because they live in
a snowy place and
don't want to be seen
• (ii)
)
to survive in its habitat, by animals that might fQ )
e.g. the polar bear.
hurt them.
• Based upon their research,
help children to create a
Who am I? quiz for the rest
r of the class to answer.
r
Reading more
Fossils (White/Band 10) explains what fossils are and what we can learn from them.
r