Definitions chapter 7: Animal adaptations to the environment

Question 1

Scaling

Answer 1

The process by which most morphological and physiological features change as a function of body size in a predictable way

Question 2

Herbivore

Answer 2

Organism that feeds on plant tissue

Question 3

Carnivore

Answer 3

Organism that feeds on animal tissue; taxonomically , a member of the order Carnivora (Mammalia)

Question 4

Omnivore

Answer 4

An animal (heterotroph) that feeds on both plant and animal matter

Question 5

Detritivore

Answer 5

Organism that feeds on dead organic matter; usually applies to detritus-feeding organisms other than bacteria and fungi

Question 6

Conformers

Answer 6

Species for which changes in external environmental conditions induce internal changes in the body that parallel the external conditions

Question 7

Regulator

Answer 7

Animals that use a variety of biochemical, physiological, morphological, and behavioral mechanisms to regulate their internal environments over a broad range of external environmental conditions

Question 8

Homeostasis

Answer 8

Maintenance of a nearly constant internal environment in the midst of a varying external environment; more generally, the tendency of a biological system to maintain itself in a state of stable equilibrium

Question 9

Set Point

Answer 9

In a homeostatic system, it refers to the normal or desired state

Question 10

Estivation

Answer 10

Dormancy in animals during a period of drought or a dry season

Question 11

Diapause

Answer 11

A period of dormancy, usually seasonal, in the life cycle of an insect, in which growth and development cease and metabolism greatly decrease

Question 12

Hyperosmotic

Answer 12

Having a higher concentration of salts in the body tissue than does the surrounding water

Question 13

Hypoosmotic

Answer 13

Having a lower concentration of salts in the body tissue that does the surrounding water

Question 14

Isosmotic

Answer 14

A characteristic describing an organism with body fluids that have the same osmotic pressure as seawater

Question 15

Thermal Conductivity

Answer 15

Ability to conduct or transmit heat

Question 16

Homeotherm

Answer 16

Animal with a fairly constant body temperature; also spelled homoiotherm and homotherm

Question 17

Poikilotherm

Answer 17

An organism whose body temperature varies according to the temperature of its surroundings

Question 18

Ectothermy

Answer 18

Determination of body temperature primarily by external thermal conditions

Question 19

Endothermy

Answer 19

Regulation of body temperature by internal heat production; allows maintenance of appreciable difference between body temperature and external temperature

Question 20

Operative Environmental Temperature

Answer 20

Body temperature that occurs when the snake occupies each of these environments

Question 21

Thermoneutral Zone

Answer 21

Range of environmental temperatures within which the metabolic rates are minimal

Question 22

Heterotherms

Answer 22

An organism that during part of its life history becomes either endothermic or ectothermic; hibernating endotherms become ectothermic, and foraging insects such as bees become endothermic during periods of activity; they are characterized by rapid, drastic, repeated changes in body temperature

Question 23

Torpor

Answer 23

Temporary great reduction in an animal’s respiration, with loss of motion and feeling; reduces energy expenditure in response to some unfavorable environmental condition, such as heat or cold

Question 24

Hibernation

Answer 24

Winter dormancy in animals, characterized by a great decrease in metabolism

Question 25

Supercooling

Answer 25

In ectotherms, lowering body temperature below freezing without freezing body tissue, by means of solutes (particularly glycerol)

Question 26

Countercurrent Heat Exchange

Answer 26

An anatomical and physiological arrangement by which heat exchange takes place between outgoing warm arterial blood and cool venous blood returning to the body core; important in maintaining temperature homeostasis in many vertebrates

Question 27

Habitat

Answer 27

Place where a plant or animal lives

Question 28

Habitat Selection

Answer 28

Behavioral responses of individuals of a species involving certain environmental cues used to choose a potentially suitable environment