Which animal does a dolphin or whale most resemble as it swims through water?

Question

A.  A running lizard
B.  A swimming shark
C.  A swimming penguin
D.  A swimming alligator
E.  A running dog

Clarify Question
· What is the key concept addressed by the question?
· What type of thinking is required?

Gather Content
· What do you know about how a whale swims? What other information is related to the question?

Choose Answer
· Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?

Reflect on Process
· Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?


Answer 1

E.  A running dog

Clarify Question
· What is the key concept addressed by the question?
        o The question asks about how a whale swims.
· What type of thinking is required?
        o You are being asked to apply your knowledge about how a whale swims.

Gather Content
· What do you know about how a whale swims? What other information is related to the question?
        o Whales, dolphins and other marine mammals have an aquatic lifestyle and have convergently evolved a similar form of locomotion. Like fish, marine mammals also swim using undulating body waves. However, unlike any of the fishes, the waves pass from top to bottom and not from side to side. This difference illustrates how past evolutionary history can shape subsequent evolutionary change. The mammalian vertebral column is structured differently from that of fish in a way that stiffens the spine and allows little side-to-side flexibility. For this reason, when the ancestor of whales reentered aquatic habitats, it evolved adaptations for swimming that used dorsoventral (top-to-bottom) flexing.

Choose Answer
· Given what you now know, what information is most likely to produce the correct answer?
        o Whales and dolphins are mammals like dogs and will swim more like a dog, with an up and down movement of the backbone. Fish and reptiles swim with a side to side tail movement while birds like penguins swim by flapping their wings under water.

Reflect on Process
· Did your problem-solving process lead you to the correct answer? If not, where did the process break down or lead you astray? How can you revise your approach to produce a more desirable result?
        o This question asked you to apply your knowledge about how a whale swims. If you got the correct answer, great job! If you got an incorrect answer, where did the process break down? Did you think that whales would swim more like other aquatic animals such as sharks? Did you think that whales would swim like a bird using its front flippers?