bbc.co.uk navigation

Green sea turtle swimming underwater

Adapted to swimming

Adaptations for swimming enables animals to move around in water. Animals that can swim proficiently (natatorial) fall into three categories. Those that evolved in water (for instance sharks and jellyfish), those that had land living ancestors but have returned to an aquatic life (dolphins and manatees) and those that split their time between water and land (penguins, crocodiles) and need to move around efficiently in both mediums. Animals that simply go for a swim now and then - say to cross a river - are not specifically adapted to swimming, though this behaviour may be of interest.

Watch video clips from past programmes (38 clips)

In order to see this content you need to have an up-to-date version of Flash installed and Javascript turned on.

View all 38 video clips

Animals with this behaviour

Mammals

Birds

Reptiles

Amphibians

Cartilaginous fish

Ray-finned fishes

Lobe-finned fishes

Lampreys

Cephalopods

Insects

Merostomata

Jellyfish

Bivalvia

About

Swimming is biologically propelled motion through a liquid medium. Swimming has evolved a number of times in a range of organisms ranging from arthropods to fish to molluscs.

Read more at Wikipedia

This entry is from Wikipedia, the user-contributed encyclopedia. If you find the content in the 'About' section factually incorrect, defamatory or highly offensive you can edit this article at Wikipedia. For more information on our use of Wikipedia please read our FAQ.

Behaviours

Other Locomotion behaviours

Habitats

Habitats where this adaptation is useful

Video collections

Take a trip through the natural world with our themed collections of video clips from the natural history archive.

  • This is Planet Earth This is Planet Earth

    With Planet Earth Live hitting our screens, what better way to marvel at the wonders of nature than watching a fantastic collection of video highlights from the original Planet Earth series.

  • Attenborough's frozen planet Attenborough's frozen planet

    Frozen Planet is Sir David Attenborough's latest exploration into the remote and isolated polar environments.

  • Baby Animals Baby Animals

    With Ooh's and Ahh's galore this video clip collection celebrates a world of adorable animal babies.

  • Seaside spectacular Seaside spectacular

    When it comes to summer holidays, there's no better place than the seaside and if you know where to look you'll be surprised at the wildlife you can find.

  • Nature's record breakers Nature's record breakers

    Animal kingdom record breakers - how fast can a cheetah run, how heavy is an elephant and what's bigger than a dinosaur? Watch amazing video clips from the BBC archive and uncover the fascinating facts about our smallest primate, the longest stick insect and the most venomous snake.

  • Life in slow motion Life in slow motion

    Slow motion filming techniques transform amazing wildlife moments into full scale events, and simple action into incredibly detailed video sequences.

Elsewhere on the BBC

More …

BBC © 2012 The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Read more.

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.