Blog 13 Compare the circulation of a segmented worm a starfish and a grasshopper

Grasshoppers have open circulatory systems, with most of the body fluid filling body cavities and appendages. The one closed organ, the dorsal vessel, extends from the head through the thorax to the hind end. It is a continuous tube with two regions: the heart, which is restricted to the abdomen; and the aorta, which extends from the heart to the head through the thorax. Haemolymph is pumped forward from the hind end and the sides of the body through a series of valved chambers, each of which contains a pair of lateral openings. The haemolymph continues to the aorta and is discharged through the front of the head. Accessory pumps carry haemolymph through the wing veins and along the legs and antennae before it flows back to the abdomen. This haemolymph circulates nutrients through the body and carries metabolic wastes to the malphighian tubes to be excreted. Because it does not carry oxygen, grasshopper blood is green.

The starfish has radial canals that go through all the legs and join in the center to make the water vascular

system that functions as a circulatory system, waste removal and more.

Starfish are almost unique in the fact that, unlike most other animals, they do not have blood but instead use sea water to pump around their bodies. The water vascular system uses cilia and the constantly contracting ampullae to keep things moving. An ionic imbalance causes water to flow into the madreporite, entering the water vascular system. Some of this water is diverted into the periviscerial coelom (the large cavity in which major organs are suspended), where it is circulated by the beating of cilia. Most oxygen enters the starfish via diffusion into the tube feet (with the water vascular system), or the papulae (small sacs covering the upper body surface.There are about 1,800 living species of sea star, and they occur in all of the Earth's oceans. The greatest variety of sea stars are found in the northern Pacific Ocean.

Circulation in a segmented worm is through a series of closed vessels. The two main vessels that can be seen in your dissection are the dorsal and ventral blood vessels. These vessels are the main pumping structures. In the dorsal vessel, blood moves anteriorly. The dorsal vessel is the dark line running along the dorsal surface of the digestive tract. In the posterior third of your worm, carefully cut through and remove about three centimeters of the digestive tract. The ventral blood vessel can usually be seen adhering to the segment of intestine removed. In the ventral vessel, blood moves posteriorly. Segmental branches off the ventral vessel supply the intestine and body wall with blood. These branches eventually break into capillary beds to pick up or release nutrients and, oxygen. Gas exchange occurs between the capillary beds of the body surface and the environment. Oxygen is carried by the respiratory pigment hemoglobin, which is dissolved in the fluid portion of the blood. From these capillary beds, blood is collected into larger vessels that eventually unite with the dorsal vessel. At the level of the esophagus, segmental branches are expanded into five pairs of aortic arches, or what have been called "hearts". They are dark, expanded structures on either side of the esophagus. Although these are contractile, they only function in pumping blood from the dorsal to the ventral vessels.

Blog 12 Compare and contrast the animals and plants you have dissected so far based on one organ system, i.e. reproduction how are they alike?

Well out of all thee animals we have dissected so far thee all have organs and skin. A cray fish has an anus just like a starfish and a worm. They are all located in similar places toward thee bottom of thee animal. However many of thee animals have eyes as well. For example a cray fish has two eyes like a perch however, a grasshopper has 3 eyes called simple eyes. Also in a cray fish they have gills instead of lungs unlike a grasshopper. A grasshopper is a land creature so it has lungs not gills. Only animals who live in water have gilla exception to alligators.

Blog 11 (Double points) Describe your bird experience in terms of competition (More points for vocabulary), food selection and factors that affected t

My bird experience was awsome I obtained a lot food because I had a spoon. I had to fight for thee food I wanted but most of thee time I won becuase i was very aggresive more then thee other birds!:) I did very well getting my food, a spoon beak is the best beak you can have.

Having a spoon was a great advantage it was very easy to get food. Unlike a knife beak however I would of liked to have a fork because it looked easlier to pick up food but a spoon work fine. I was able to get food for myself, enough to last me.

Blog 10: Explain how contamination of one animal in a food web can affect other animals

The terms food chain and food web both refer to groups of organisms that are dependent on each other for food. A food chain is a single series of organisms in which each plant or animal depends on the organism above or below it. As an example, a food chain might consist of garden plants, such as lettuce and carrots, fed upon by rabbits which, in turn, are fed upon by owls which, in turn, are fed upon by hawks.

The feeding relationships of organisms in the real world is almost always more complex than suggested by a food chain. For that reason, the term food web can effect other animals. A food web differs from a food chain in that it includes all the organisms whose feeding habits are related in some way or another to those of other organisms. In the example above, small animals other than rabbits feed on lettuce and carrots and, in turn, those animals are fed upon by a variety of larger animals.

Blog 9 What geologic era do you think was the most important why?

I would choose the mesolithic era is most important because Mesolithic means "Middle Stone Age. However, the prefix "meso-" in the word can mean "between," and this has been taken some scientists to refer to cultures in between a hunter-gathering mode and an agricultural mode. The Mesolithic era begins at the end of the Pleistocene epoch and the start of the Holocene, the most recent geologic epoch. Prior to the Mesolithic era, mile-thick continental glaciers covered most of Eurasia and North America. Any terrain north of 50 °N was essentially uninhabitable, until the ice melted around 11,000 years ago. Global temperatures increased, making life easier for humans worldwide. By the Mesolithic, humans had already spread across the entire world, except for Antarctica and a few remote islands. The Americas and Australia were fully colonized. The Mesolithic era was an unusual transition time between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic. Because the period was relatively short, Mesolithic artifacts are relatively hard to come by, consisting mainly of middens, or scrap-heaps. In coastal areas around the world, there are large shell middens dating to the Mesolithic era. In British Columbia, there is a midden several meters in depth which has been around for at least 10,000 years. Mesolithic cultures were about as advanced as you could get before establishing agriculture and cities. They hunted animals with a variety of bows and spears, and drove most of the world's megafauna to extinction. Like civilizations before them, they survived through a mix of hunting and gathering, although may have begun to intentionally plant the seeds of edible plants in fertile soils, pulling out the weeds.

Blog 8 Give examples of the different types of natural selection. Give an example for each

The different types of natural selection are directional selection, disruptive selection, and Stabilizing selection. In directional selection, one extreme of the trait distribution experiences selection against it. The result is that the population's trait distribution shifts toward the other extreme. In the case of such selection, the mean of the population graph shifts. Using the familiar example of giraffe necks, there was a selection pressure against short necks, since individuals with short necks could not reach as many leaves on which to feed. As a result, the distribution of neck length shifted to favor individuals with long necks.In disruptive selection, selection pressures act against individuals in the middle of the trait distribution. The result is a bimodal, or two-peaked, curve in which the two extremes of the curve create their own smaller curves. For example, imagine a plant of extremely variable height that is pollinated by three different pollinators, one that was attracted to short plants, another that preferred plants of medium height and a third that visited only the tallest plants. If the pollinator that preferred plants of medium height disappeared from an area, medium height plants would be selected against and the population would tend toward both short and tall, but not medium height plants. Stabilizing selection is when natural selection works against the two extremes of a trait to make the population more uniform. For example, stabilizing selection might work on the birth weight of human babies to keep them at an intermediate weight, because babies that are too big or too small have less chance of being born healthy.

Blog 7 What was dangerous about Darwin's idea?

Darwin's theory was revolutionary because it banished the concept of intelligent design from biology, consigning it to a marginal theological ghetto. For the first time, there seemed to be a plausible materialistic explanation for all those ingenious biological mechanisms -- the brain and the eye, digestion and circulation, feathers and fins.

Others extended Darwin's ban on intelligent design to include the origin of life and the universe itself. With help from intellectuals such as Marx and Freud, we were left with a view of humans as mere animals or machines who inhabit a universe ruled by chance, and whose behavior and thoughts are determined by the immutable and impersonal forces of nature and environment.

Blog#6 There are many types of evolution convergent and divergent are two. Look them up. Define them and give an example of each type of evolution.

Divergent evolution is the most commonly known of the three types of evolution. It involves one species that eventually separates into two separate species. For example, a flock of migratory birds, heading for a warmer climate, gets divided in a storm. One half of the flock continues on to the original destination. The other half lands on a new island, and decides to stay. Over time, they develop characteristics that allow them to better survive on the island, and become a different species their ancestors who were initially separated from the larger flock. What was once one species has now been separated into two.The second type of evolution -- and usually the hardest to understand is convergent evolution. Convergent evolution explains two or more species that develop similar traits in separate types of environments. Animals developing wings is one example of convergent evolution. There was no one common ancestor for all winged animals. Due to their individual environments, these animals all developed wings on their own, through generations of evolution. Wings were developed based on the physics of flying, not on a pre-programmed internal blueprint handed down from a similar ancestor.

Blog 5 Explain how different species form (speciation)

By conbining one organism with another. A new specie formed when a population is isolated.When a group of individuals is separated from the rest of their species for a long time, the individuals can evolve different traits. The longer the group is isolated from the rest of the species, the more likely it will evolve into a new species. Almost every lake has different forms, believed to have evolved from one species.Groups of living things can become separated in different ways. Rivers can change their course. Volcanoes and mountain ranges form. New islands are created. Ocean waves can carry small groups many miles away and put them down in a new place.

Blog #4 Summarize what Darwin said about evolution.

Darwin's Theory of Evolution is the widely held notion that all life is related and has descended from a common ancestor Darwin's theory of evolution is based on five key observations and inferences drawn from them. These observations and inferences have been summarized by the great biologist Ernst Mayr as follows Species have great fertility. They make more offspring than can grow to adulthood. Populations remain roughly the same size, with modest fluctuations. Food resources are limited, but are relatively constant most of the time. From these three observations it may be inferred that in such an environment there will be a struggle for survival among individuals. In sexually reproducing species, generally no two individuals are identical. Variation is rampant. Much of this variation is heritable.

log #3 Genetics related topic of your choice(Fingerprints)

Fingerprints can be recorded on a standard fingerprint card or digitally. Getting quality fingerprint impressions can be a matter of using proper techniques. Even though the methods of recording fingerprints may be different compared to, the techniques for obtaining quality fingerprints are very similar. For example in a loop print can rise towards the fingertips, or fall towards the wrist. The Common Loop moves towards the thumb, while the Radial Loop (Reverse Loop) moves towards the percussion side of the hand. Also in an arch fingerprinthe ridges run from one side to the other of the pattern, making no backward turn. And in a whorl fingerprint the ridges are usually circular.

Blog 2Should we clone full humans? For what purpose?

No we should not clone full humans because human cloning would bring risks of abuses to human dignity by unscrupulous people. Also if for example a scientist did clone a human how would thee clone emotionally feel. Would the clone feel like a fake person or a human, would he be deined for being a clone, or would he not make friends at school. There also may be physical risks for example To repeat the same thing on humans would be giving both the mother and the potential foetus a high risk of damage. The basic science of fusing the cytoplasm and nucleus to the cell is very poorly understood. How many abnormal babies would have to be produced to get one right? There are t unknowns about physical problems in pregnancy with cloned sheep and cattle to suggest that human cloning experiments would violate normal medical practice. Roslin researchers have said that there is no experiment that could be done to prove the safety of human clonig without casuing serious risk to humans in the process. Then there are also unknown factors of ageing.

I predict that genetics will be used much more frequently in the future because technogoly is getting more and more advanced everyday so why wouldnt genetics be used more often. There are many positives in using genetics for example they have played a huge role in our health/medical society. Without genetics we would'nt know how to make medicine or know how to idenify certain diseases. As we all know medicine is very imporatnt when it comes to a human's health, so since medicine is also getting more advanced genetics will advance as well.