Year 6 science · Key Stage 2 · Evolution and inheritance

Year 6 evolution: fossils, inheritance and adaptation

In Year 6, children learn that living things have changed over time and that fossils tell us about creatures that lived millions of years ago. They find out that offspring are of the same kind as their parents but not identical to them, and that features suited to an environment can help living things to survive. Over many generations, this adaptation may lead to evolution.

Fossils, inheritance and adaptation, explained

The topic starts with fossils, which children first met in Year 3. A fossil forms when a plant or animal dies and is buried quickly, often in mud or sand at the bottom of a sea or lake. Over a very long time the hard parts, such as shells, teeth and bones, are slowly replaced by minerals and the sediment around them turns to rock. Fossil footprints and burrows also count. Fossils show that many living things from millions of years ago, such as ammonites and dinosaurs, looked different from anything alive today, and that living things have changed over time. Only a tiny fraction of living things ever become fossils. Many schools mention Mary Anning, who found important fossils on the Dorset coast in the early 1800s.

The second idea is inheritance. Living things produce offspring of the same kind: cats have kittens and oak trees grow oak seedlings. But offspring are not exact copies of their parents, and brothers and sisters are not identical to each other either (apart from identical twins). Some features, such as the colour of a dog’s coat or the shape of your nose, are passed on from parents. Others, such as a scar or the ability to play the piano, are not. Dog breeds show how people have chosen particular features and bred from those dogs. Children aren’t expected to know how genes and chromosomes work.

Next comes adaptation. An adaptation is a feature that helps a living thing to survive in its environment. A cactus has a thick, waxy stem that stores water and spines instead of broad leaves. A penguin has a streamlined body, waterproof feathers and a layer of fat under its skin. A camel has wide feet that spread its weight on sand, long eyelashes against blown grit and a hump that stores fat. Arctic foxes have thick fur, small ears and, in winter, white coats. These are common choices, and schools pick their own examples, often comparing living things in extreme places such as deserts and polar regions.

Putting the ideas together leads to evolution. Because offspring vary, some will be slightly better suited to their surroundings than others. Those are more likely to survive, have young of their own and pass the helpful features on. Over very many generations, a population can change. Individual animals do not change during their lifetimes to suit their surroundings. It is the make-up of the whole population that changes over time. Many schools name Charles Darwin and Alfred Wallace, who both worked out this idea in the 1800s, though which people are chosen varies from school to school.

Words your child will hear

Fossil: The remains or impression of a plant or animal that lived long ago, preserved in rock.
Offspring: The young that a living thing produces.
Variation: The differences between living things of the same kind.
Inherit: To receive a feature from a parent, such as the colour of your hair.
Adaptation: A feature of a living thing that helps it to survive in its environment.
Evolution: Gradual change in living things over many generations, as helpful features become more common.
Environment: The surroundings a living thing lives in, including the climate and the other living things.

What the National Curriculum says

In Year 6, pupils should be taught to:

Recognise that living things have changed over time and that fossils provide information about living things that inhabited the Earth millions of years ago
Recognise that living things produce offspring of the same kind, but normally offspring vary and are not identical to their parents
Identify how animals and plants are adapted to suit their environment in different ways and that adaptation may lead to evolution

Objectives from the National Curriculum in England, © Crown copyright, used under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

A worked example

Arctic foxes have thick fur and white winter coats. Explain how this adaptation could have come about by evolution.

Start with variation. Long ago, in a snowy, freezing habitat, the foxes in a population would not all have been the same. Some would have had thicker fur than others, and some paler coats.
Link features to survival. A fox with thicker fur loses less body heat in the freezing winter. A fox with a pale coat is harder for its prey to spot against the snow, so it catches more food.
Link survival to having young. Foxes that stay warm and well fed are more likely to survive and to have healthy young.
Link to inheritance. The cubs inherit features from their parents, so more of them have thick fur and pale coats than in the generation before.
Repeat for many generations. Each time, thicker, paler foxes are more likely to survive, so the whole population gradually changes. No single fox changed its own fur because it needed to.

Arctic foxes varied, and those with thicker, paler fur were better suited to the snow, so they were more likely to survive and pass those features on. Over many generations, thick, pale fur became common in the population. This is evolution through adaptation.

Common mistakes and how to help

Thinking animals change because they need or want to

Everyday talk makes it sound deliberate: “the giraffe stretched its neck to reach the leaves”.

What helps: Say instead that variation exists first, and the animals best suited to the environment survive and have young. Individuals can’t choose to change what they pass on.

Believing offspring are exact copies of their parents

Young animals look so like their parents that children expect them to be identical.

What helps: Look at a litter of kittens or a family photo and spot differences. Offspring are the same kind but vary, and that variation is the raw material for evolution.

Thinking a camel’s hump stores water

It is a very common saying, and it fits with camels living in deserts.

What helps: The hump stores fat, which can be used for energy. Camels survive without water by drinking a lot at once and losing little water.

Thinking features gained in life are passed to children

It sounds sensible that a parent who has built big muscles or got a scar would pass that on to their children.

What helps: Separate inherited features, like eye colour, from ones gained in life, like a scar, a skill or a haircut. Only the first kind are passed on.

How to help at home

Make a fossil. Press a shell, a leaf or a toy dinosaur’s foot into air-drying clay or modelling clay, lift it away and look at the print. Talk about what a real fossil needs: burial, time and rock.
Spot the variation. Collect ten leaves from one tree or ten pebbles from the same place, and lay them out in order of size. Even things of the same kind differ, which is the key to variation.
Family features. Look at a photo of your family and ask which features appear in more than one person, such as hair curl or eye colour. Which things can’t be inherited, like a haircut or a scar?
Design a survivor. Pick an extreme habitat such as a desert, the polar ice or the deep sea. Ask your child to draw an animal and label each adaptation with a reason. A museum visit, with an adult, is a good way to see real fossils.

Leads on to

Key Stage 3: DNA, genes and variation
Key Stage 3: Natural selection and biodiversity

Everything in Year 6 science

Updated 20 October 2026.