Inherited Traits and the Environment

Why does a puppy look like its parents, but not exactly? Why is a flamingo pink? Some traits come from parents, others from the environment or from what we learn. Let’s find out how to tell them apart.

This lesson takes about 10 minutes. You can take a break after each part.

Before you start

Inherited Traits and the Environment

Learning objectives

  • I can explain that young animals and plants inherit traits from their parents, and that traits vary within a family.
  • I can give examples of traits changed by the environment: light, food, exercise.
  • I can tell an inherited trait from an acquired one.

Traits passed on by parents

Like their parents, but not exactly

A trait is a feature of a living thing: fur color, eye color, ear shape. Many traits are inherited: parents pass them on to their young.

But the young are not exact copies: brothers and sisters can look different.

A family chart of dogs on three numbered rows joined by lines. Row 1: a cream puppy in a square and a brown puppy in a circle, the parents. Row 2: their three young, brown, cream and brown; the last brown one is joined to a cream dog in a circle. Row 3: the young of that pair, cream, brown and brown.
Coat color is passed on from parents to their young. In each family, some puppies are brown and some are cream. Squares are males, circles are females.

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The environment can change traits

Food, light and exercise

Some traits also depend on the environment: what a living thing eats, how much light it gets, how much it moves.

A flamingo is pink because it eats shrimp. A plant kept in the dark grows pale and thin.

Two flamingos side by side. On the left, a bright pink flamingo feeds in a lake; a circle zooms in on the small pink shrimp it eats. On the right, a pale white flamingo eats from a bowl in a zoo pen; a circle zooms in on brown food pellets.
A flamingo gets its pink color from the shrimp it eats. Without that food, its feathers turn pale.
Two potted plants of the same kind, each with a watering can. On the left, on a sunny windowsill, the plant is short, bushy and dark green. On the right, inside a dark cupboard, the plant is tall, thin and pale yellow-green.
Same kind of plant, different light: in the dark, the plant grows thin and pale.

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Inherited or acquired?

Born with it, or gained along the way

An inherited trait is there from birth, like hair color.

An acquired trait comes during life: a skill you learn, like riding a bike, or a scar from a fall. Acquired traits are not passed on to children.

On the left, a mother and her daughter cheek to cheek: both have curly red hair, green eyes and freckles. On the right, the same girl rides a bike with a helmet and a bandage on her knee; in a small picture, she plays the piano.
The girl inherited her red hair, green eyes and freckles from her mother. Riding a bike and playing the piano, she learned; the scrape on her knee came from a fall.

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Review game

Final assessment

To master the lesson, you need at least 60% correct answers.

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Summary

  • A trait is a feature of a living thing, like fur color or ear shape.
  • Many traits are inherited: young look like their parents, but traits vary within a family.
  • The environment (food, light, exercise) can change some traits: a flamingo’s color, a plant’s growth, a dog’s weight.
  • Acquired traits, like a skill or a scar, come during life and are not passed on.

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