How would life adapt to survive in an environment with winters of varying length?

In his answer to a question on our Science Fiction and Fantasy SE about how Westeros in Game of Thrones produces food during the winters, Superbest says:

"Martin's conception of a multi-annual winter is a little bizarre in my opinion. If this has been going on a geological time scale (eg. millions of years) it would either create flora and fauna radically different from what we see here on Earth, while the novels seem to portray basically the same animals and plants we have, with the occasional exotic exception".

So, how would an animal evolve to survive on a planet where winters and summers lasted varying, random lengths like in Game of Thrones? What common traits would develop among animals in general? (I know there would be wild differences based on predator/prey status and such, but there would also be similarities - what would they be?)

Assumptions:

Winters can last anywhere between 1 and 30 years at a time. 99% of the time it will be somewhere between the 2 and 10 mark, however.

Summers work the same way, with summer instantly kicking in after winter ends. The length of a summer has no relation on and in no way impacts the length of a winter and vice versa - it is totally random within the above parameters.

We will also assume that this world has obviously been like this for long enough for animals to evolve, if not from its beginning.

Edit 1:

The sun remains in "summer mode" for the duration of summer, and "winter mode" for the duration of winter in regards to the length of the day. It is also, obviously going to be horrendously cold for the duration of winter in the northern hemisphere.

Outside of this, the world is exactly like Earth.

posted over 7 years ago

JDSweetBeat‭

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