Organism and habitat terminology

Question 0

Pelagic

Answer 0

Living in the water

Question 1

Benthic

Answer 1

Living on the bottom

Question 2

Littoral zone

Answer 2

Deals with tides. Effected by daily cycles.

Question 3

Lacustrine environments

Answer 3

Lake environment. Most likely of the terrestrial environments to preserve.

Question 4

Sub tidal zone

Answer 4

Below the range of the tides. More likely to preserve than the littoral zone.

Question 5

Infaunal

Answer 5

Within the substrate. Very likely to preserve.

Question 6

Epifaunal

Answer 6

Lives on the substrate

Question 7

Neritic

Answer 7

Above the continental shelf

Question 8

Mineral hard parts

Answer 8

Bio minerals often embedded in an organic matrix.

Question 9

Most common mineral hard parts

Answer 9

Calcareous (CaCO3) in the form of calcite or aragonite.

Siliceous (ex glass sponge) phosphatic (ex humans)

Question 10

Which preserves better calcite that is low or high in Mg?

Answer 10

Low Mg

Question 11

Organic hard parts

Answer 11

Generally composed if crystalline polymers that form high stiffness and tensile strength, usually embedded in an organic matrix (ex-exoskeleton of insects)

Question 12

Sessile

Answer 12

A benthic organism that stays in one place (ex-anemone)

Question 13

Planktonic

Answer 13

A pelagic organism that is wave and current transported.

Question 14

Nektonic

Answer 14

A pelagic organism that swims

Question 15

A mobile benthic organism

Answer 15

An organism that lives on the bottom, but is able to move itself.

Question 16

deposit feeders

Answer 16

Do not subdue or dismember. Get their food from the substrate.

Question 17

Grazers

Answer 17

Scrape plant material from surfaces (ex-Urchin)

Question 18

Suspension feeders

Answer 18

aka filter feeders. Remove food from the water column but do not dismember.

Question 19

ventral

Answer 19

Towards the bottom

Question 20

bauplan

Answer 20

blueprint. Generally considered to represent features posessed by the ancestor.

Question 21

phylum

Answer 21

Largest division of the animal kingdom.

Question 22

morphology

Answer 22

The shape of an organism and it’s meaning.

Question 23

No definite geologic form (a type of symmetry)

Answer 23

assymetrical (ex-sponge)

Question 24

Parts arranged radially around a central point, an infinite number of planes of symmetry pass through the center.

Answer 24

spherical (ex- some protists)

Question 25

Body generally cylindrical. Body parts arranged around the main axis. All plains passing through longitudinal axis are mirror planes. (a type of symmetry)

Answer 25

Radial symmetry (ex-jellyfish, corals)

Question 26

pentaradial symmetry

Answer 26

5 planes of symmetry (ex-seastar)

Question 27

proximal

Answer 27

toward the body

Question 28

distal

Answer 28

Away from the body

Question 29

metamerism

Answer 29

repeated body parts (ex-centipedes)

Question 30

biradial

Answer 30

only 1 mirror plane the same at each end.

Question 31

Bilateral

Answer 31

Only 1 mirror plane may be different at each end (ex-Darwin the cat)

Question 32

coelum

Answer 32

An internal fluid filled cavity

Question 33

monophylitic

Answer 33

Same common ancestor. All related

Question 34

polyphylitic

Answer 34

Unrelated organisms in the same group usually based on shared primitive characteristics. (ex putting birds and insects together because they both fly)

Question 35

Spindle diagram

Answer 35

shows number of families over time scales. The wider it is the more families there were.
Also shows the earliest appearance.

Question 36

synamorphy

Answer 36

A shared derived characteristic (modified from the condidtion in the ancestors)
ex-gastropods

Question 37

iterative evolution

Answer 37

Repeated re-evolution of similar morphology

Question 38

High Volativity

Answer 38

repeated history of diversification and extinctions

Question 39

cladograms

Answer 39

Branching diagram that represent hypotheses about the actual evolution between the taxa.

Question 40

Node

Answer 40

A branching point on a cladogram

*Groups that meet at a node share an evolutionary innovation that is not shared by other groups

Question 41

Crown Groups

Answer 41

Everyone that is alive and all of their ancestors. A crown group can contain extinct animals

Question 42

Stem Groups

Answer 42

Consists entirely of extinct organisms that display some, but not all the morphological features of their closest crown group. (ex-dinosaurs are a stem group with birds as the crown group)

Question 43

phylogenemics

Answer 43

relationships as inferred from genetic studies

Question 45

theoretical morphology

Answer 45

• develop a model
• Use model to generate the spectrum of possible forms
• Theoretical morphospace is then compared with actual forms
• Which parts of the morphospace are actually occupied?
• ask why or why not?

Question 46

L-Systems

Answer 46

Model the development of multicellular organisms such as plants
*A form of a rewriting system where the parts of a simple object are successively replaced using a certain set of rules

Question 47

functional morphology

Answer 47

Study of relationships form and function

Question 48

Functional analysis

Answer 48

How can we reconstruct how ancient organisms lived?

• Are all features of organisms a result of adaptation or are there other controls?
• What is the evolutionary history and consequences of adaptations?

Question 49

Arguments from homology as an approach to functional morphology

Answer 49

Function fossil organisms same as living relative. Example ammonoids from nautilus

Question 50

Arguments from phylogeny as an approach to functional morphology

Answer 50

Primitive function inferred from relationships. Example parental care in dinosaurs inferred from alligators and birds.