What is a functional adaptation of an animal?

Answer 1

a functional adaptation is an adaptation that involves changes over time and is useful for survival or if it benefits their general wellbeing, for example webbing in duck's feet and hibernation.

Answer 2

Wombats have a number of adaptations that allow them to live in a variety of habitats from grasslands, to the bush, to mountain slopes. Their front legs are equipped with sharp claws for digging. This enables them to both forage for plants roots (one of their food sources), and dig burrows for shelter. The claws are strong enough to enable the wombat to dig in the toughest soil. The only surfaces they cannot dig in are solid rock and loose beach-like sand. They are nocturnal, sheltering in their burrows during the day.

Wombats are one of only a few species of marsupial that have a backward-facing pouch. This means that, when the mother wombat digs her burrow, dirt does not fly into the pouch and affect the young joey.

A wombat's teeth are unlike those of any other marsupial, but tend to be more like a rodent's, in that they grow continually throughout the animal's life. Because much of their diet is made up of tough grasses that wear heavily on the teeth, this continual growth ensures that wombats' teeth never wear away.

For defence, the wombat literally uses its backside. It has extra tough, thick skin on its lower back. Because a wombat's burrow is only just big enough for the wombat itself to fit into, in the event of a dog or dingo attack, it will turn around and present only that thicker hide to the aggressor, a hide that is difficult for a dingo's teeth to penetrate. In the absence of a wombat tail, there is nothing for a predator to grasp onto, either.