Listen to part of a lecture from a Biology class.
When we humans walk from place to place, we move on the Earth's surface, across the Earth's surface. Many animals of course do the same thing. Horses and dogs and cows and so on, all move on the surface, across the surface of the Earth. But there are also quite a few animals that have the ability to move from place to place underground, beneath the Earth's surface. This moving around underground is called subsurface locomotion. Sub surface location has a number of benefits.One benefit of subsurface locomotion is that it enables animals to minimize their exposure to extreme temperatures. This is very helpful to animals that live in areas with harsh climates, where it could be very dangerous to spend large amounts of time on the surface. For example, in the Sahara Desert, in Africa, there's a type of lizard that's able to move beneath the surface, through the sand, very quickly. Because this lizard can move so easily and so quickly underground, it doesn’t have to travel on the surface, where it would be exposed to dangerously high temperatures.Another benefit of subsurface locomotion is that it can help animals capture prey. That’s because animals on the surface can’t see predators approaching underground. Our lizard in the Sahara Desert is again, a good example. The way it works is, when an insect is walking nearby on the surface, it produces very subtle vibrations in the sand. When the lizard senses these vibrations, it moves very quickly. Underground, where it can’t be seen, toward the source of the vibrations. It then pops up directly under the insect and catches it by surprise."
Using the example of the lizard form the lecture, explain two benefits of subsurface locomotion.
One benefit of subsurface locomotion is to allow animals minimize their exposure to extreme temperatures, especially those that could be very dangerous. A good example of this is a kind of lizard that lives in Sahara Desert in Africa. The lizard can move quickly underground to keep from the dangerously high temperature. Another is that it can help the animals catch their preys more easily because the preys above the ground usually fail to see them when they moves beneath. Back to our lizard, it preys on small insects that move above the ground, and the movement produces subtle vibration that can be detected by the lizard. So the lizard moves quickly through the sand toward the source of the vibration, and then pops up from the soil to capture and eat the prey. (135 words)
