Arowana

High school (ages 12+)
Animals & Nature

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/arowana

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the scientific name?Osteoglossum
2. What is the habitat?Slow-moving freshwater rivers, swamps, and inundated forests in South America
3. What makes an Arowana's tongue special?An Arowana has a bony tongue covered in teeth that helps it grip and chew its food.
4. How does an Arowana breathe when the water has little oxygen?It can gulp air at the surface and use its swim bladder, which works like a lung, to get oxygen.

Osteoglossinae: A subfamily of freshwater bony fish characterized by their distinctive toothed bony tongue.
Facultative Air Breather: An organism capable of respiring both in water and atmospheric air, utilizing air when aquatic oxygen is scarce.
Hypoxic Conditions: Environments with significantly low levels of dissolved oxygen, challenging for aquatic life.
Morphology: The study of the form and structure of organisms and their specific structural features.