Metabolism And Energetics

Question 1

What happens when an animals body temperature is hotter than the outside environment temperature?

Answer 1

The heat exits the anima to colder temp. Via gradientl; cooling the animal

Question 2

What happens when an animal’s body temperature is lower than the outside environment temperature?

Answer 2

The heat from the outside environment goes into the animal’s cooler body temp. via gradient; animal gets hotter

Question 3

Thermoregulation

Answer 3

Maintaining a certain temp.; if exceed limit -> denaturing of enzymes

Question 4

Where does heat production occur?

Answer 4

Heat is produced in organs or muscles like brain and liver; calories are being burned=heat production

Question 5

Where does heat loss occur?

Answer 5

In extremities like feet, fingers, nose, and ears

Question 6

Why is the core cooler compared to the extremities?

Answer 6

Heat is being sent out in the extremities; core is cool because even though it produces heat it retains the heat via insulation

Question 7

Insulation

Answer 7

Keeping warm; fur and feathers increase boundary layer

Question 8

Boundary layer

Answer 8

Region near surface where fluid velocity drops to zero

Question 9

How do fur and feathers help w/ increasing the boundary layer?

Answer 9

They trap air causing the air to not move, like “wearing a jacket”

Question 10

Blubber

Answer 10

Internal insulator; white fat under skin used for storage and prevents heat loss to ocean

Question 11

Countercurrent exchange

Answer 11

Minimizes heat loss in extremities via gradients

Question 12

What is an example of countercurrent exchange?

Answer 12

A seagull is standing in cool water. It’s warmer blood travels down to its feet (an extremity) and gets colder. In the feet, the there are two vessels (artery and vein) next to each other traveling in different directions and they meet in the feet arranged in a web. As the blood travels up back to the core, the heat from the core that is traveling down transfers some heat to the colder blood.

Question 13

Differences between countercurrent and concurrent flow.

Answer 13

Countercurrent: blood flows in opposite directions and vessels are next to each other

Concurrent: blood flows in same directions and vessels are not flowing near each other

Question 14

Thermogenesis

Answer 14

Keeping warm; burning calories; Ex: shivering and brown fat

Question 15

Shivering

Answer 15

Spend energy and let muscles contract to burn calories to heat up the body

Question 16

Brown fat

Answer 16

Stored in the body just for generating heat; bears have mostly brown fat; heat energy from brown fat does not go to other organs or muscles only locally

Question 17

Behaviors for warmth

Answer 17

Decomposition and huddling

Question 18

Decomposition

Answer 18

Birds(?) bring dead corpses in a ring to heat their chicks(?) up

Question 19

Huddling

Answer 19

Stay close together keeping warm and reducing airflow

Question 20

Vascularization

Answer 20

Keeping cool; anything w/ vessels

Question 21

Example of vascularization.

Answer 21

An elephant carries warmer blood to ear and it flaps ears to cool itself; veins are arranged randomly in the ear (an example of cocurrent blood flow)

Question 22

Evaporative cooling

Answer 22

Transferring heat energy to water where it can evaporate to the atmosphere; splashing oneself w/ water, licking oneself, panting, sweating

Question 23

Behaviors for staying cool

Answer 23

Nocturnality, burrowing

Question 24

Nocturnality

Answer 24

Only appear at night when it’s cool

Question 25

Burrowing

Answer 25

Digging underground to stay in the cooler dirt compared to the hot surfacs

Question 26

Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR)

Answer 26

Metabolic rate at rest

Question 27

Absolute metabolism

Answer 27

BMR vs Body Mass; the bigger the animal the more calories burned/energy needed; Elephants have the highest

Question 28

Mass specific metabolism

Answer 28

BMR per kg body mass vs. Body mass; how much energy needed per gram to maintain temp.; smaller animal needs to eat more per gram to conserve heat; bigger animals do not lose heat as fast due to higher volume to SA ratio; Shrews (tiny) have the highest

Question 29

Which of the following statements abt animal evolution is TRUE?

Complex organ systems evolve only in large animals

Metazoans and chanoagellates share a common ancestor

Integumentary structures are homologous

Shivering thermogenesis warms an animal by increasing its boundary layer

Answer 29

Metazoans and chanoflagellates share a common ancestor

Question 30

Torpor

Answer 30

Occurs when cold; hibernation to save energy

Question 31

Estivation

Answer 31

When hot; hibernation underground

Question 32

Would torpor benefit large or small animals more?

Answer 32

Benefit small because it takes a lot of energy to warm up the body for large animals